British boxer Anthony Joshua described Nick Kyrgios as “an amazing character” but also admitted that he “underestimated” the Australian’s passion at Wimbledon. Kyrgios, 27, made his first Grand Slam singles final at this year’s Wimbledon before losing to Novak Djokovic.
Throughout the entire tournament, Kyrgios was showing lots of emotions and often expressed his frustration and anger when things weren’t going his way. Joshua, who admitted to not being really a big tennis fan, had a hard time understanding why Kyrgios was losing it “over only a game of tennis.”
Joshua, a former two-time world heavyweight champion, then lost to Oleksandr Usyk in August. After losing to Usyk for the second time this year and failing to retain the world heavyweight title, Joshua remembered Kyrgios and at that moment understood the Australian’s passion from Wimbledon.
Joshua on his admiration for Kyrgios
“I don’t think people underestimate it, what I’ve come to figure in life is if you’ve never experienced it, you can’t understand it. So for those who’ve never experienced it, I don’t think it’s that they underestimate it, they just won’t understand it.
We were talking about tennis on the way here and Kyrgios, I’m not a big tennis fan but I watched him at Wimbledon. Amazing character, I like his character but I thought ‘rah, this guy’s a bit crazy’.
Now I can understand it because I’ve experienced it, that anger and emotion of losing. But at the time when I watched him at Wimbledon before my fight, I underestimated it. I was like, ‘Why is he acting like that? It’s only a game of tennis, it will come again.’ So it’s not underestimating it, I said until you love something so much that it can make you do crazy things, you probably wouldn’t understand,” Joshua said of Kyrgios.
Kyrgios enjoyed the season of his life this year and his performance earned him praise and recognition from many within the tennis community. In 2023, Kyrgios will be aiming to continue his rise and win his first Grand Slam singles title.