Nick Kyrgios admits tensions are high between himself and Jannik Sinner, going as far to say the pair "don't like each other" ahead of a potential meeting at Melbourne Park.
Sinner, the end-of-year world No.1 and two-time Grand Slam champion, tested positive twice for Clostebol during the Indian Wells Masters in March, causing heated debates amongst current players.
The most outspoken of those players when the news broke was Kyrgios, who posted on X that the Italian "should be gone for two years" before the US Open kicked off.
Appearing on the Nothing Major Podcast, Kyrgios shared his feelings about a potential match against Sinner at next month's Australian Open.
"Let's be honest, I just want to go out there and I really want to play Sinner," Kyrgios said.
"I've thought about this — if I played him in the Australian Open — I would just get every single person in the crowd to get on him. I would just turn it into an absolute riot.
"All respect would go out the window and I would just do anything to win.
"I feel like why we love sport is because you have to have contrast in personalities.
"If I draw Sinner in the Australian Open third-round, everyone will watch because it's contrasting personalities. We don't like each other, and I think it's healthy in sport."
However, fans on social media were left far from impressed with the former Wimbledon finalists' comments.
"This obsession with Sinner has gone way too far and he just keeps playing up to it because it gets attention. He doesn’t care about doping in tennis. He never said a word about the likes of [Nicolás] Jarry or [Marin] Čilić," one fan posted.
Another fan wrote: "This is genuinely deranged, he has something against Sinner that is CLEARLY beyond a drug test. constantly publicly sh*t talking someone you work with is insanely unprofessional and bordering on harassment at this point."
After his first-round victory at Flushing Meadows earlier this year, Sinner was quizzed about Kyrgios' decision to be overly vocal about the recent doping controversy.
"Everyone is free to say everything. It’s ok. I don’t know what to say," Sinner said. "Maybe I say something now and then the reaction will be something else. I’m always quite relaxed. I’m someone who forgets things quite fast. Everyone is free to say everything. It is what it is."
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