Former British No. 1 Greg Rusedski raised questions after Nick Kyrgios received a wild card entry for the 2026 Australian Open. The Australian star is currently ranked No. 1286 and hasn’t played a lot lately apart from recently appearing for the Battle of the Sexes showdown against Aryna Sabalenka in Dubai.
According to Rusedski, the Australian needs phenomenal results such as a deep run to the semis or at least quarters in the Brisbane International, where he’s scheduled to compete ahead of the Australian Open.
“He brings people into stadiums, but he needs to show some form and from today’s performance [against Sabalenka], he doesn’t look ready to play best-of-five sets,” Rusedski said.
Upon hearing those remarks, Kyrgios went under the belt against Rusedski, highlighting the past controversies of Rusedski regarding the usage of performance-enhancing drugs.
“Pretty sure Greg got done for performance enhancing drugs once in his career, so I wouldn’t take too much advice from someone like that,” Kyrgios said. “I didn’t even know the comments he made to be honest. I’ve just been enjoying time back home, enjoying all these amazing events, selling out stadiums around the world. If you let me know when Greg sold out a stadium last time he played, yeah, you let me know.”
Nick on Greg Rusedski saying that he shouldn’t receive AO WC
“Pretty sure Greg got done for performance enhancing drugs once in his career, so I wouldn’t take too much advice from someone like that…you let me know when he sold out a stadium last time he played”
🎥: 🎾Australia pic.twitter.com/jCW4MyCotB
— TennisONE App (@TennisONEApp) January 2, 2026
Rusedski commented under the above post, asking Kyrgios not to level accusations without any knowledge.
“@NickKyrgios Maybe before you comment you should actually read the judgement and understand the case. I was exonerated and proven 100% innocent !
Last time this happened your agent had the decency to apologise for your behaviour and no further action was taken,” Rusedksi wrote on X.
Details Behind Nick Kyrgios’ Reference To Greg Rusedski’s PED Allegations
Nick Kyrgios, while criticizing Greg Rusedski, referred to the former British tennis star testing positive for the banned anabolic steroid nandrolone after a tournament in Indianapolis in July 2003.
Rusedski denied taking any type of performance-enhancing drugs. His lawyers argued that the positive result was likely caused by contaminated supplements. The former British star also accused that he was being singled out as other players from the time also saw elevated nandrolone readings.
In an independent ATP tribunal in March 2004, Rusedski was cleared of any doping offense. The panel concluded that the banned substance in his system might have come from contaminated supplements and that the tennis star was unknown about that.
Rusedski returned to competitive tennis shortly afterward. This is why Rusedski sounded confident while taking a public dig at Kyrgios.
