I've never doubted Rafael Nadal much in his career, he's unquestionably the GOAT if he wins Roland Garros this year: Nick Kyrgios
Nick Kyrgios recently spoke about a wide range of topics on his No Boundaries podcast, including Rafael Nadal's position in the GOAT race and the success of this year's Australian Open.
Nadal overtook his arch-rivals Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in the Slam race by winning his 21st Major at Melbourne Park last month. The Spaniard came back from two sets down to defeat medvedev" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-is-sponsored="false">Daniil Medvedev to win his second Australian Open title.
Kyrgios, for his part, believes the Spaniard could cement his claim to the GOAT title if he wins his 14th Roland Garros crown later this year.
Speaking on the No Boundaries podcast about the Melbourne final, Kyrgios admitted that he didn't initially think that Nadal could've won the match, especially in the fashion that he did.
"I stopped watching after he went down 3-2, 40-0... and then when I checked scores 2.5 hours later my initial thoughts were, "No f***ing way, this guy!" I thought there was no chance..." Kyrgios said. "I've never doubted Rafa much in his career, but the GOAT conversation now if he wins the French... he's unquestionably the GOAT if he wins it. As of right now, if he gets to 22 and the others are around 20, I think he's got the GOAT crown then."
He also elaborated on why he thought that Nadal was going to drop the championship match to Medvedev.
"I thought it was a horrible match-up for Rafa. Like, the courts didn't play how Rafa wants them to play to win," he said. "He wasn't going to get too many free points on his serve, Medvedev was going to make him play too much, Medvedev can still serve through the court. When he won the first set then the second, I was like, it's going to be really tough for Nadal to come back."
When asked by his co-hosts whether Djokovic's absence at this year's Happy Slam should asterisk Nadal's achievement, Kyrgios replied in the negative. He pointed out that the 35-year-old beat the best players that were eligible to play in the tournament.
"Nah. Injuries are part of the game, vaccines are now part of the game, it's not... Nadal could only play whoever was in front of him at the time," he added. "But I think Medvedev is still the best player in the world at the moment, even though Nadal won the match. If Nadal wins 22, I think he's unquestionably got the GOAT crown."
We were thinking about the Novak saga and how it was gonna leave a sour taste in people's mouth at Australian Open 2022: Nick Kyrgios
During the interaction, Kyrgios was also asked to give his thoughts on just how wild the local crowd was throughout the fortnight in Melbourne. In response, he claimed that they were "on edge" all the time while adding that Djokovic's visa controversy didn't taint the tournament's experience, contrary to what many skeptics believed.
He also alluded to his high-octane second-round encounter against Medvedev at the Rod Laver Arena and Ashleigh Barty's title-winning campaign as some of the reasons behind the "insane energy" at the tournament.
"The crowd was on edge all the time. Yeah, like, it was just a s***show. But the energy this AO, we were thinking about the Novak saga and how we all thought it was gonna leave a sour taste in people's mouth at AO..." Kyrgios argued. "They thought it was going to ruin AO. I actually thought it was probably one of the most successful AO in a while... Barty won the singles. Like it was a really successful AO.
"The level against Medvedev was high... I think the crowd loved it, you know, Medvedev really didn't know it was going on but the level was still insane," Kyrgios added. "That's one of the highest level matches at AO I have played, even though I lost. The energy was insane (the whole tournament)."