Tennis great Andy Roddick destroys Nick Kyrgios with blistering broadside about his character – including THAT assault on his ex – for his attack on Cruz Hewitt

Former tennis world No.1 Andy Roddick has slammed Nick Kyrgios for his behaviour towards Jannik Sinner and Lleyton Hewitt’s son Cruz in a stunning broadside that saw him bring up the Australian’s guilty plea to assaulting his ex-girlfriend.

Kyrgios, 29, has been outspoken on the subject of doping this year, notably lashing out at Jannik Sinner, who failed two tests for the steroid clostebol in March.

Sinner avoided a ban because the International Tennis Integrity Agency determined he was not to blame for the breach.

That hasn’t stopped Kyrgios from going after Sinner on social media at every opportunity and labelling the doping scandal ‘disgusting’.

Last week, Kyrgios took aim at Cruz Hewitt when the 16-year-old posted a photo of him training with Sinner, posting the comments ‘Love ya Cruz but this is wild’, ‘thought we were boys’ and ‘cooked post’ with a needle emoji.

The 29-year-old later hit back at criticism over his reaction, claiming he’d been misinterpreted and only an ‘idiot’ would fail to realise he and Hewitt are friends and it was just ‘some banter’. 

Roddick, who has had a bumpy relationship with Kyrgios over the years, has had enough of the tennis bad boy and called out his ‘ridiculous’ behavior.

‘At this point he is a tennis influencer. He lives for likes, he lives in the comments section,’ Roddick said on his Served podcast on Wednesday.

‘What I have an issue with is the hypocrisy with which he picks and chooses when to levy judgement on others while also wanting you to digest the context of his comments – the latest being towards Cruz Hewitt, who practiced with Jannik Sinner.

‘Kyrgios has been the single most outspoken critic of Jannik Sinner on the heels of his failed doping test. So Cruz Hewitt is 16 years old, son of Lleyton and the toughest competitor that I have ever played in my life, gets to hit with a guy who is number one in the world at the Australian Open. That is a big deal.

‘Imagine as an almost 30-year-old man, going into the comments of a 16-year-old who is the best player in the world. If you think he is guilty or not guilty, it’s still a moment when you get to do that.

‘That’s a big moment and to simply post a picture and then have this guy go into the comments and make it all about himself. “I thought we were bros”.

‘The defence was all made that it was a joke. The lack of awareness you have with bringing trolls and all of the worst of tennis fandom into a 16-year-old’s comments is ridiculous. It’s ridiculous.’

Roddick then brought up the fact Kyrgios pleaded guilty to assaulting his ex-girlfriend Chiara Passari in 2021. 

Kyrgios said he was ‘not in a good place’ at the time, and that he ‘reacted to a difficult situation in a way I deeply regret’ as the magistrate dismissed the assault charge and did not record a conviction.

‘When you have moments in your life that aren’t the best,’ said Roddick. 

‘When you’ve plead guilty to physically assaulting your girlfriend, but you want people to understand the context…

‘You wanted people to understand your moment in time and life that didn’t make this acceptable but at least maybe say “this isn’t who I am, this isn’t what I do – I’m not an abuser even though I plead guilty to abuse”.’

Roddick went on to say that Kyrgios has complained about mental health issues and online bullying affecting him, but doesn’t realise that he’s engaging in similar behaviours with his behaviour online.

‘It’s just hypocritical. It’s purely hypocritical,’ he said.

Roddick has a very different view of the breaches by Sinner and former women’s world No.1 Iga Swiatek, stating they are ‘not even doping, just contaminated substances and testing for billionths of grams’.

‘Some of the players [are] chirping about these champions that will be hall of famers, when they’ve never put in two good days of work together simultaneously in their lives.’