"Rafael Nadal was scared of you" - Nick Kyrgios & Alexander Bublik make bold claim about Aussie's Wimbledon loss to Novak Djokovic

According to Alexander Bublik, Rafael Nadal was "scared" of Nick Kyrgios. The Kazakh's opinion stemmed from Kyrgios himself wondering how things would have turned out had he faced the Spaniard instead of Novak Djokovic in the final of the 2022 Wimbledon Championships.

Kyrgios began the 2022 Wimbledon final on the front foot, winning the first set 6-4. However, Djokovic stormed back into the match, and won the next three sets 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(3) to dash the Australian's hopes of a maiden singles Major title.

In an interaction with iconic tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglou and fellow ATP colleague and rival Alexander Bublik, Nick Kyrgios revisited the contest. The Australian opined that he had done everything possible on the day to come out on top, but simply couldn't because of the Serb's legendary abilities on return of serve.

"I don't think I could have done much more. I played pretty solid. I played a bad tiebreak in the fourth set, but, I mean I got broken up four all in the third set at 40 love. It's f**king ridiculous. So we get broken 40 love on grass, something has gone wrong in my head, not tennis wise, in my head. That was tough," Kyrgios said.

The former World No. 13 went on to claim that he would have possibly done a better job against Rafael Nadal.

"I think if I played like Rafa or something in the final, it would have been fine I think," he added.

Here, Alexander Bublik told the Australian:

"Rafa was scared of you."

Interestingly, Kyrgios was supposed to lock horns with Nadal in the semis of the Wimbledon Championships in 2022. However, the Spaniard withdrew from the contest with injury, allowing the Australian to progress to the final.

"I couldn't stand Rafael Nadal" - Nick Kyrgios' 2024 admission on facing Spaniard

Nick Kyrgios (Source: Getty)

Late last year, Nick Kyrgios featured as a guest on the Nothing Major podcast, which is co-hosted by American former ATP stars John Isner, Jack Sock, Sam Querrey and Steve Johnson. Here, the Australian candidly laid bare his feelings on facing Rafael Nadal, saying:

"I couldn’t stand him. I used to hate and despise him so much when I saw him walking around. He was one guy who always motivated me. If I played him I would get up for it and try and get the best tennis I could possibly play. I didn’t feel that anger towards Federer or Novak when I played them."

Kyrgios has a 3-6 win-loss record against the now-retired Nadal, while the Australian's win-loss records against Novak Djokovic and the also-retired Roger Federer stand at 2-1 and 1-6 respectively.