Nick Kyrgios believes coaches are “a little bit of a waste of money”. He told his friend Elliot Loney that he believes tennis coaches get paid “way too much”.
During a candid 45-minute podcast he said that he doesn’t “have a goal of winning grand slams” but just have “fun with it and just play”.
He added that it’s too late for him.
“So to get a coach for me is pointless because I don’t want to waste their time almost,” he said.
“I just don’t think a coach is ready – and I’m not going to put them through it too ’cause it would just be a nightmare. Where I’m at my career now, it’s just too far gone, I think for a coach, ’cause I’m too set in my ways and I just don’t like to listen to advice, to be honest.”
READ MORE: Nick Kyrgios supports coronavirus victims
The Greek Australian world number 13 tennis player has conquered Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, and though he has reached two grand slam finals, he doubts he’ll ever win one because he does not believe his “body will hold up for seven matches at a grand slam, potentially playing three to four hours”.
“If I could, I’d just be on the beers every time I play – afterwards. I just want to chill out. I just think the sport’s taken a bit too seriously,” Kyrgios said, adding that he is just happy to have defied doubters who had told him as a teenager that he was too fat to forge a successful career.
READ MORE: Nick Kyrgios’ efforts for Canberra tourism in #holidayhereCBR campaign
“I was only a kid. I just wanted to play, go compete, and you’ve got coaches and teachers saying to a 14- 15-year-old kid ‘you need to lose weight, otherwise you’re not going to be good’. It was pretty tough to handle back then … I just wanted to prove a lot of people wrong. I wanted to go out there, like a fat kid from Canberra who was decent at ball striking (to show I) could literally take it to some of the best in the world.”
