- Nick Kygios takes aim at Cruz Hewitt for posting photo
- Tennis world has turned on the controversial Aussie
Nick Kyrgios has slammed Cruz Hewitt for posting a photo of himself with Jannik Sinner after training with the World No. 1 ahead of the Australian Open.
Hewitt, the talented son of Aussie tennis great Lleyton, got the chance to train with Sinner at Melbourne Park before the first Grand Slam of 2025.
Kyrgios, who has been a vocal critic of Sinner, was not happy at seeing the 16-year-old with the Italian.
The controversial Aussie has called Sinner’s breach of the the sport’s anti-doping program ‘disgusting’ and has gone out of his way to take shots at the Italian at every opportunity.
Sinner tested positive twice for an anabolic steroid in March, but avoided a ban because the ITIA determined he was not to blame.
Kyrgios has made numerous social media posts challenging the decision – and was enraged on Monday after seeing Hewitt smiling with Sinner.
Nick Kygios has taken aim at Cruz Hewitt for posting photo with Jannik Sinner
Hewitt, the son of Aussie tennis great Lleyton, got the chance to train with Sinner at Melbourne Park on Saturday – and Kyrgios wasn’t impressed
Kyrgios commented under Cruz’s post: ‘Love ya Cruz but this is wild’, then later adding ‘Cooked post’ with a needle emoji.
The Aussie firebrand also wrote: ‘Thought we were boys’ with several broken-heart emojis.
Sinner later shared Cruz’s photo and posted: ‘Thanks for joining, good hit!’
Kyrgios has been slammed for the comments, with tennis fans saying he crossed the line.
Prominent tennis journalist Bastien Fachan posted on X: ’16-year-old Cruz Hewitt posts picture of him training with Jannik Sinner on Rod Laver Arena …
’29-year-old Nick Kyrgios immediately spams it with disparaging comments and needle emojis. This is way over the line, and it’s time the tennis world calls out his harassment campaign.’
Another tennis fan posted: ‘Nick Kyrgios will harass a 16 year old kid online, but tennis authorities will still promote him as if he’s even ever been a top 10 player. Then, we have to hear him cry about the establishment when he’s been the biggest beneficiary of it.’
A third posted: ‘A 30 yo harassing a 16 yo on social media, really? Embarrassing.’
Kyrgios cast doubt on the innocence of world No 1 Jannik Sinner, who still faces the threat of a possible suspension after he twice tested positive for an anabolic steroid in March
Another commented: ‘It is beyond embarrassing. This is harassment at this point!’
The sport’s bad boy cast doubt on the innocence of Sinner in December with another scathing attack.
‘Two world No 1s both getting done for doping is disgusting for our sport,’ said Kyrgios. ‘It’s a horrible look.
‘Tennis integrity right now, and everyone knows it but no one wants to speak about it, it’s awful.’
Sinner, who failed two drug tests, was cleared of any wrongdoing by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) that accepted his explanation of unintentional contamination.
Iga Swiatek was hit with just a one-month suspension after testing positive for a banned heart medication in August, a decision derided as ‘illogical’ by Simone Halep, who has just returned after 18 months out following two anti-doping violations.
While the Pole has accepted her punishment and served her ban, the case against Sinner is going to rumble on after WADA, the world anti-doping authority, appealed the ITIA’s decision.
Sinner had successfully argued his physiotherapist had accidentally contaminated him during treatment of a cut, but Kyrgios clearly has his doubts.
‘I pay my team hundreds and thousands of dollars to make sure that doesn’t happen,’ he said. ‘So they knew it happened. Why did they wait five to six months to do anything about it? He kept his team for five months — that doesn’t make sense.
‘If he didn’t do anything wrong, why did they take his prize money and points (at Indian Wells) away? Obviously they found something wrong with this. Obviously that’s why WADA have appealed it.’
