Nick Kyrgios puts himself in the pantheon of modern greats like prime Federer, Nadal, Djokovic in the 'most successful' era of tennis

Nick Kyrgios enjoyed Taylor Fritz's 'cheeky' remark to Arthur Rinderknech after his second-round win at 2024 Wimbledon. The Aussie called the American's comments much-needed for tennis as according to him, the sport is not at its finest moments.

Kyrgios further added that the most successful of era included primes of many greats such as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic and added himself to that list of greats.

Prior to his match against Fritz, Rinderknech called the American out for being 'whiny' during their match at the 2023 French Open and hoped that he would be calmer at Wimbledon. The American had shushed the French crowd after taking out the home-favorite.

Rinderknech told the media:

"The atmosphere will be calmer (than at Roland in 2023) and he will cry a little less. He was a little whiny. I have nothing against him, but if he expected the French public to give him kisses between points, it was a bad time."

The 11th seed defeated the Frenchman 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, and during the ceremonious handshake the situation between the two escalated when Fritz said:

"Have a nice flight home."

Rinderknech did go to the American to have a discussion to no avail as he brushed him off by telling him that he knew what he did.

Nick Kyrgios took to X (formerly Twitter) to applaud Fritz' s comment stating how this was something the sport needed:

"This is what the sport needs 👀👀👀👀✈️✈️✈️✈️✈️✈️✈️ @Taylor_Fritz97 cheeky……"

A fan questioned that though entertaining, it wasn't something tennis needed as it was doing as well as ever:

"It’s definitely entertaining, but I'm not sure if the sport needs it. The sport seems to be doing as well as ever."

Kyrgios disagreed with the fan on the fact:

"Completely disagree that the sport is going as well as ever."

The fan further questioned when the most successful period was according to the 29-year-old:

"Interesting. When was the most successful period?"

Nick Kyrgios responded that tennis' finest time was when the sport had prime Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and named many other players. The Aussie also added his name to the list of these greats:

"Hmm maybe when you had prime Federer, Nadal, Murray, Nole, Nishikori, Cilic, Del potro, Berdych, Monfils, Dimitrov, Tsonga…. Kyrgios."

A look into Nick Kyrgios' head-to-head against Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer & Novak Djokovic

Nick Kyrgios

Nick Kyrgios won his first match against all of the players of the Big 3.

After winning his first match against Roger Federer at the 2015 Madrid Masters, the Swiss won six consecutive matches to lead 6-1.

The Aussie burst onto the scene when he defeated Rafael Nadal in the fourth round of the 2014 Wimbledon Championships. Since then, the two men have shared some tough battles. The Spaniard leads their head-to-head 6-3.

Kyrgios has a favorable 2-1 lead against Novak Djokovic. However, the only match he lost to the Serb was the Wimbledon 2022 final, the only Major final the Aussie has reached in his career.