News

Nick Kyrgios prompts a reaction after Darren Cahill’s comparison of Ben Shelton to him

Nick Kyrgios agrees with Darren Cahill and believes his statement made after Shelton and Novak Djokovic's US Open match was appropriate.

Adeel Talib

19 September 2023

Nick Kyrgios agrees with Darren Cahill’s comparison of Ben Shelton to him and his assertion following Shelton and Novak Djokovic’s US Open match was appropriate. Djokovic did the phone celebration on Shelton in the US Open semifinal after winning in three sets. That style was Shelton’s trademark throughout the competition.

Earlier, Darren Cahill compared Djokovic with Kyrgios and said: “He’s like Kyrgios, you like Kyrgios, you hate him, I don’t care. On the tour, he brings something different and people will go out and buy a ticket, and watch these guys play.”

Ben Shelton’s father criticized Djokovic for mocking his son and said: “He wants to be loved so much, Novak. He wanted to mock Ben at the end. It wasn’t something he was doing just to copy Ben. It was to mock him. And that’s too bad, for that to come from such a great champion.”

Kyrgios replied to this statement and wrote on Twitter: “So what? Sport is entertainment. We aren’t robots. More people spoke about the celebration than the match.”

SO WHAT?!?!? SPORT IS ENTERTAINMENT. WE AREN’T ROBOTS. MORE PEOPLE SPOKE ABOUT THE CELEBRATION THEN THE MATCH 😂 https://t.co/SIWS7WRb6O

— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) September 15, 2023

Nick Kyrgios in 2023

Nick Kyrgios

0 - 1win/loss

Grass

0-1

Rank
470

High
13

29 year old

2023 Highlights

1st

Stuttgart

SEE ALL

Now ranked no.472, the Australian played his last match on the 13^th of June when he was overcome by world no.98 Yibing Wu 7-5 6-3 in the 1^st round in Stuttgart (draw).

Presently, during this year Nick has a 0-1 match record.

Stuttgart

Kyrgios's Record

Ben Shelton in 2023

Ben Shelton

22 - 14win/loss

Hard

9-6

I Hard

2-1

Clay

8-4

Grass

3-3

Rank
14

High
14

21 year old

WWLWLLLWWL

2024 Highlights

Now the world no.19 (career-high), Shelton played his last match on the 8^th of September when he lost to world no.1 Novak Djokovic 6-3 6-2 7-6(4) in the semifinal of the U.S. Open (draw).

Currently, during this year Shelton has an overall 19-23 win-loss record. Ben Shelton’s best achievement of the current year was getting to the semifinal in the Cagliari Challenger and at the U.S. Open.

Shelton is expected to play next in Beijing (China Open). He is currently an alternate. The main draw will start on the 28th of September.