Stefanos Tsitsipas did not flinch.
Asked about Nick Kyrgios’ cocaine suspension after his opening win at the US Open, the Greek star spoke with the bluntness of someone who has long stopped being surprised.
Tsitsipas had just taken out 10th seed Arthur Fils in the first round in New York when the questions turned, inevitably, to Kyrgios. Earlier this month, the Australian had revealed he tested positive for cocaine in June while in Spain for an event, a confession that triggered a ban which could stretch up to four years, though a shorter sanction is widely expected.
For Tsitsipas, none of it landed as breaking news.
“I mean, to be entirely honest with you, I knew about this before the announcement. Myself, I knew about it,” he said. “So what can I tell you? I will just tell you the truth. I knew about all of this before any announcement was made, and when I saw it on social media, I was, like, ‘Here we go.’ I kind of expected it, to be honest.”
That phrase – “kind of expected it” – carries weight coming from him. This is not a casual locker-room acquaintance. This is a man who has lived the full force of the Kyrgios experience across the net.
Their rivalry reached boiling point at Wimbledon in 2022. Kyrgios stormed to his only Grand Slam final that fortnight, but his third-round win over Tsitsipas became one of the tournament’s most combustible spectacles. Tsitsipas fired balls directly at Kyrgios, deliberately lashed one into the crowd, and later branded the Australian a “bully” in a press conference that echoed around the sport.
Since that chaotic summer, Kyrgios’ career has been defined less by theatrics and more by absence. Injuries have kept him off the tour for long stretches. When he announced his positive test and suspension, he admitted he had felt “helpless and alone,” while stressing that none of that justified his actions.
Tsitsipas, though, hinted that the issues now laid bare were an open secret in certain corners of the circuit.
“I knew that those were things that were happening away from the tennis courts. I will tell you that,” he said. “I’m not going to try and cover up someone that I know the truth for. I’ll consider myself a nice person with everyone, but these were behaviours that I personally heard on the tour and heard other people in that same environment saying those sort of things to me.”
The picture he painted was of rumours that had long been circulating, whispers that made the official announcement feel like the final step rather than a shock twist.
“So when I saw it I was like, ‘well, pretty much expected, to be honest’. I am surprised it came so late, though.”
A former world No 3, Tsitsipas knows how quickly the sport can turn. One man is fighting his way into the second round of the US Open. The other is staring at a ban that could strip away what remains of his prime.
The gap between them has never felt wider.
