Piers Morgan Uncensored - Piers Morgan Uncensored: Nick Kyrgios

Episode Date: December 1, 2023

On Piers Morgan Uncensored tonight, Piers is joined by Australian Tennis Star, Nick Kyrgios. Watch Piers Morgan Uncensored at 8 pm on TalkTV on Sky 522, Virgin Media 606, Freeview 237 and Freesat 217. Listen on DAB+ and the app.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nick Kirios is the undisputed bad boy of tennis, racking up a world record half a million pounds in fines. She's drunk out of environment. He's more famous for his volleys of abuse and his actual volleys, thinking aim at spectators. No one that looks like she's had about 700 drinks, bro. Superstars and me. I've told Kirios to grow up.

If you're watching, Mr. Kirios, I think you do watch the show. Just grow up, your big baby. He's told me to eat a . And tonight in the most unlikely exclusive of the year, I'll find out if you regret some of those sentiments. I hated myself. I hated waking up and being Nick Curios. But there's a soft aside to the tennis hard man.

The Curios family has definitely dealt with their fair share of racism in Australia. Will I break his nerve or will nasty Nick finally win that elusive grand slam? From the news building in London, this is Pearce Morgan Unscensored. Good evening from London. Welcome to Pearce Morgan Unsensored. So tonight, an exclusive interview with a sporting superstar and someone I genuinely never thought would ever agree to be interviewed by me. Well, I'm joined now by Nick.

Curiosity, the interview nobody on planet Earth thought would ever happen is now about to happen. So, Nick, how are you? Good, peers. How are you? How's everything going? Well, I thought it might be useful for viewers who are not familiar with our beef, I believe, is the vernacular term these days, to go over the beef over the last few years and explain how we reached this place.

It goes back to 2016. You played Andy Murray. Sounds good. You threw a legendary stroop, even by your standards, and I tweeted the following. Never seen an Australian sulk like Kirois. Normally ferocious, proud competitors. Embarrassing.

I then added, you should put your toys back in the pram, to which you responded, EAD. Now, I didn't know what EAD meant until one of my sons informed me. It meant eat a dick. So perhaps we could start with that one, Nick. It was a very to the point comment. Do you have any regrets about your response,

or did you think it was fair enough? Yeah, I think it was warranted, definitely. I actually sent that from a restaurant. I had a couple beers, and I saw your comment on Twitter, and I was just like, I'm in no mood. to deal with anything like this at the moment and I just sent it so yeah I mean look Andy Murray he's

an absolute legend of the sport and I got I got given a lesson that day and yeah it was not a good showing for me but I guess a couple years later made the final of Wimbledon so you would have enjoyed seeing that right this well funny enough you weren't the only person

to come back at me with a comment like that on Twitter around that period Rihanna I told her to grow her hair after she revealed some short bob when she appeared on stage in London, and she replied, grow a dick. So there was a running theme to global figures basically calling me a dick in various ways.

I mean, you can't blame her for calling you one. Sometimes you are a bit of a dick, I guess. Well, I've got to say, coming from you, pot kettle. Now, look, I've been called a lot worse than that. Well, let's move to the second phase of the beef. In an interview with the New York Times, after this exchange, which got a bit of traction online, as we know.

You confessed you never watched tennis and you responded, no chance. Jesus, I'd rather watch Piers Morgan. Yeah, well, I mean, that's actually a compliment. You should take that as a compliment because I'd actually probably rather watch one of your segments on TV than a tennis match. So that's actually, I don't know why you would take that as beef.

compliment like you're you're entertaining so and we all know that that's why people watch me from time to time it's not also about the quality it's just about you know how much fun am i going to have in 30 minutes so i'd rather watch you for sure definitely that's a compliment look we could be friends i think you're you're i think we're very alike you know what we're probably more alike than i would care to admit and i suspect we will be friends after this um with things move forward then to wimbledon last year obviously you're on a tear you're playing fantastically you are a genius tennis player. I'm going to put that on the table now. I love watching you play. However, you can let yourself down, Nick. Let's just put it politely. And on one occasion, during the

tournament, you let yourself down and he was throwing stuff around and abusing everyone. And I labeled you on this show, the douche of the day. Let's take a look at the clip. One of my least favorite people, Nick Curios. You know what, bro? You're my douche of the day. Every day. If you're watching, Mr. Curious, I think you do watch the show. Just grow up. You big baby. Any thoughts? Yeah, but, okay, look, I'm not going to sit here and say that I'm on my best behavior all the time, but these clips that you show are only like 10 to 15 seconds worth of what the tennis match is.

There's four or three to four hours where I'm incredibly well behaved. I mean, like competing and I'm playing world class tennis. Then you choose to show 10 seconds of a four-hour match. I mean, I can't control that. But I do understand, like, sometimes, yeah, yeah, I could be a douche on the tennis court. that's just what it is. I mean, let's be clear. I do hours and hours a week of live television,

I think, to a pretty high standard. But if I was to spend 10 seconds every week, throwing things at the cameraman and swearing and shouting and throwing my toys out of the pram, people would focus on that, Nick. Probably not the rest of my programming. Okay, but again, you are exaggerating.

It's not every week. It's not every week. There's like months and months where nothing happens and then the minute something happens again you just say that, oh, here he is doing it again where it could be like a six months hiatus of me not doing anything. So, I mean, look, there's only so much control I can have.

Well, the main reason you're not. And you're also acting as if I'm the only tennis player who does these things. No, no, you're not. You're not. Some of the legends of the sport of broken rackets. Oh, yes. Oh, well.

No, no, you're the modern-day John Mackin. I'm going to come to that because I know that you've got to, You've developed a bit of a rapport with McEnroe. Let's go back to Wimbledon again in the same tournament. I then had a strange feeling. It was a strange feeling came over me because there was this furorie about you wearing your Jordans and you kept insisting on doing it

and you had an altercation with a journalist and I suddenly found myself tweeting the following. I said, he's such an unrelenting, uncompromising douche bag that to my horror, I'm actually. you're beginning to warm to Nick Kierreos? Why to your horror? Why are you afraid of liking me? I'm just myself.

I'm not going to conform to like... Look, Wimbledon for me is the pinnacle of tennis, if not one of the biggest sports, sporting, you know, events we have in the world. So I have utmost respect for everything that it represents. And every time I'm there, I, you know, I have goosebumps. I understand the relevance of the event.

And, you know, I think I just put my touch on it. I'm not trying to change Wimbledon, but Nick Kirios is trying to bring his touch towards Wimbledon with a slight red hat or some red Jordans. The majority of his white. Like I'm wearing white, I'm going out there, playing in front of millions of fans, you know, giving the, you know, England some good tennis.

So I don't understand why I got so much hate for that. And I think that's a picture that I'll remember for the rest of my life. You know, that's when Nick Kiroz is all said and done in his tennis career. We're making the Wimbledon final, putting on that red hat, meeting the queen and, you know, doing that is pretty cool, I think. So I can understand why you're warming up to me. Well, I was definitely warming up to you.

And then we made an incredible common ground. We discovered we feel exactly the same way about somebody else in the world of sport. And it was Megan Rapino, the female soccer player, as they call it, in America. And he came after this clip where she basically treated a young boy trying to get an autograph, I thought was appalling dismissiveness. Have we got the clip? 10. 9. Well, I gave my pretty strong views about this on Twitter,

and you actually replied, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, one thing me and peers agree on. So we finally bonded over Megan Rapino being a spoiled, petulant brat. Yeah, look, again, I'm not going to come on here and, you know, criticise athletes. I know that she's got, you know, millions of fans worldwide. And in this moment in time, she may have been dealing with things and maybe very dismissive.

I'm not going to sit here and say I've been amazing to every fan that I've ever signed, you know, tennis ball for or anything for. But, you know, every time, you know, it's a young kind of kid. I do my best to try and look involved because I used to be that person when I was young. You know, I had my idols and when they signed tennis balls for me, I was always super, super excited. So I know the relevance and the importance of being present in those moments. And, you know, someone like me that I don't know if you know because you dislike me so much, I actually try and give back a lot to the community and spend time with kids

and I actually met a make-a-wish kid a couple weeks ago and I enjoyed that type of stuff. So, yeah, I mean, I don't really like the dismissiveness but, you know, I haven't been perfect either. Well, let me just put this on the table. I've actually grown to really like you. And that may be the worst thing you hear from me all day. But I actually had because I watched the Netflix thing,

found out a lot more about you, about your life, about your upbringing, what you'd come through, and the honesty I felt that you brought to what you'd gone through and the self-awareness that you had, I felt, I wouldn't use a phrase as patronising as it felt like you'd grown up, but it definitely felt like you'd evolved as a human being, and we're able to look back on that period when we first locked horns and recognise that that was not a path to any glory. That was just going to be completely self-defeating.

Would that be fair? Yeah, I think we all grow up at our own pace, but yeah, definitely look up. To look where I was in 2016, where you and I had the run in, and look, a bit of credit would have been nice from you. I mean, it was fourth round of Wimbledon against one of the greatest of all time.

I thought that in itself was a pretty good achievement. But, yeah, look, I've grown up immensely. I look back at, you know, those Twitter beefs that I've had. I've had one with you, I've had one with Drake, and I just look back and I'm just saying, like, These is just so, so silly. And when I've met all these people that I've had beef, we actually get along extremely well.

I mean, I could imagine that you and I could go for a beer and for a drink and we'd have a great time with all the stories and experiences that we've both had. But yeah, I guess that Netflix series was really good for me personally because it gave a bit of background into, you know, people think that I've been entitled and got given everything off a play. But, you know, when I was young, my family didn't have much. You know, I had to kind of work for everything that was thrown my way. And, you know, I went through my own struggles.

It was common struggles that most people do go through. So that's why I'm very relatable. So I think that's why it was very important. It was an interesting part of the Netflix thing where there shows about some of the critics you've had. And I pop up. Let's take a look at that. You were having a bit of an interaction,

if you're the line judges. And at one point, I think you said, you're in your 90s, you can't see the ball. I hit a ball in. Right. The old man called it out. It was in. So arguably, if the guy was 40,

he may not have called that out. Do you have any sympathy with how sometimes They're treated by players, for example. Well, they're not getting abused on social media. Like, I have to deal with, my girlfriend deals with hate messages, my family deals with hate messages, I deal with hate messages. Okay, thank you very much. Boris.

Thanks, thank you very much. The man's out of control. Can you put up any defence for this antipidium monster? There's plenty of Australians who think he's an absolute tool. I've got to say, it's slightly awkward looking at some of this stuff I said about, with you sitting there watching me as I do it. But in a way, you kind of brought that treatment on yourself. You know, I would argue.

I think you felt like it was part of your brand. You're an uncompromising brash character, right? And you probably factored in, well, this is going to make me more interesting, right? Not on that particular day. First of all, Erin Mullen, that person, the Australian reporter, I have no idea who that person is. So her opinion to me doesn't matter. And I'm happy she had her five minutes of fame.

But also, yeah, that day, like, I've just played a four and a half hour match and I brought my food into the press conference because I'm not sure. I'm not sure if you've been an elite athlete before. But when you finish a match for four hours, you need to fuel your body because it's like a very crucial part of your recovery. So I thought I'd bring my sushi in to the press conference room because I had media to do and I didn't want to make people wait.

because people have bookings for the media room. So there's a lot of things that happen behind the scenes that I got criticized for. And many other tennis players have brought beers into the press conference room, eating in the press conference room, and they don't get absolutely battered in the media for it. I just brought some sushi and thought I'd kill two birds

with one stone, get my media done, look after my nutrition, be professional. But obviously that got taken for a spin, and it was like, oh, he's eating in a press conference room. He's Judas. But, you know, that was hard. I mean, why would we, I just don't understand. It's Wimbledon.

It's one of the biggest sporting events in the world with millions of dollars on the line. Why would we let line calls be given to chance? Why would we not have electric line calling or at least give the players the best chance to compete in a fair environment? So I'm just very black and white. I'm not trying to act. I just strongly believe that there should be electronic line calling because then it doesn't leave hundreds and thousands of dollars on the line to maybe a chance or a bad. day or someone or something like that and sorry that I was just looking after my nutrition with with five bits of sushi my goodness geez you know what Nick I had to eat I'll give you the

I'll give you the first point I agree with you about the line calling it is ridiculous if you have some old crusty at Wimbledon who can barely see straight ruling something out when he's in or the other way around thank you I'm not going to give you sushi because Roger Federer would never do that because he's too classy and he'd have too much respect for the journalists. So that you're not going to get a pass on that. But I'm not Roger Federer. You can't expect everyone to be Roger Federer. You can't do that. That's unfair. That's very unfair. That means 99% of the tennis tour are not up to Rogers Federer standard. That's sport. That's personality. Like you do you know what I mean? He also has nine people in his team to make sure that

he has food ready. I only had three. I had my girlfriend. I had my best friend, my agent and my physio. So we don't I don't have the life. luxury of having 13 people to tie my shoelaces like Roger Federer, or, you know, make sure I have a white vest to walk on the court with. I have to do these things mostly on my own. So that's a bit of understanding. Compared to Nick Kiroz, Roger Federer is ridiculous. Well, hang on. I'm not comparing you to him as a player or anything to do with his entourage or anything. I'm just saying he'd never eat sushi here at a press conference, which is something you don't need to be told what to do, do you? But what's wrong with that? I'm looking at

after my nutrition and it's a very common thing that tennis players do in every tournament. It's not abnormal for a player to eat or snack on something because I just came off the court. I didn't have any time to do recovery. They told me that was my press conference time, so I had to eat. I had to eat. How would you feel? What do you want me to do? How would you feel if while we're talking right now in an interview that's going to be be beamed around the world, I just start munching on sushi? But you, but you didn't play at Wimbled for four hours. You've no idea what I'd be doing. You had ample time to prepare to get breakfast.

Tennis, yeah, but tennis is one of the only sports in the world where you don't know how long the match will go for. And it could be an hour and a half, it could be four hours. So plans change. You have to be very adapt. You have to be able to adapt. That's why Novak's, for me, the greatest athlete,

because there's not like, it's like a football match where you play a certain 90 minutes or, you know, it's an NBA game where you have 48 minutes. It's like there's so many things and intangibles that can happen. Like, I had to eat. It was not...

Obviously, if my match went for an hour and a half, I would have said, oh, yeah, no, I'll eat later, but I had to eat at that time. Okay. Look, I'm not going to sit here and, like,

if I was talking to Raphael or Novak Djokovic, I'd be like, yeah, no, 100%. But, Piers Morgan, it's like, it's a problem. Well, I tell you what is a problem for me. Is your inference earlier

that I don't understand the mentality of an elite tennis player? I'd like to play you a clip of when I took on Serena Williams in New York. Oh God, here we go. Let's have a look at this. That's not bad. You're carrying on like Nick Curios.

It's like, you know, you know what? I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you. It wasn't Wimbled, Denver. You know, I didn't want to play that clip, but you forced me into it with your taunting about me not being an elite level tennis player. That is me beating the greatest female player in history. I'm not claiming any credit. Obviously, I'm a man. I'm more powerful, I'm faster, more skillful. A win's a win.

Yeah, you looked good. Your technique was a lot better than I thought, but you looked in a bit better shape back then, Pierce. So how about when I get healthy? We take it to the courts and we sort it out once and for all. Well, you know what? I'll do that. And actually, I do need a bit more sushi and my diet.

That's true. You're going to lay off the pints. I want to play your more serious clip, mate, because it's good fun joshing with you. And you've obviously got a good sense of humour. But I want to play another clip from the Netflix series. This is where you talk about when you went off the rails. I hated the kind of person I was.

I was drinking, abusing drugs, lost my relationship, my family, pushed all my close friends away. You could tell I was hurting. My whole arm was covered in scars. And that's why I actually got my harm sleeve to cover it all. 21 teams is tough. Nick was, I mean, yeah, Nick was f***. I've just never seen someone go through.

And that's why sometimes, oh my God, I get so upset when someone says, like, bad things about him because they don't know. I was genuinely contemplating if I wanted to commit suicide. I found that really shocking, Nick, and I read another interview you gave a print interview. And you talked about feeling incredibly lonely, very disconnected from your family. You were drinking heavily, sometimes 20, 30 drinks and night. 30 drinks a night before big matches, taking drugs, partying till dawn. On one occasion at Wimbledon in 2018, your manager couldn't get hold of you and used a phone app to track you and found you were 26 miles away, passed out in a random stranger's house. And you would spend days lying in the dark cutting and burning yourself.

And I've got to say, I found that incredibly shocking, but also incredibly courageous of you to put all. all this out there for the public to learn? Yeah, I think I was at the point of my career last year when I came out about it and I was ready to open up. I think last year I was actually ready to just put my story out there. And, you know, when I watched those clips that you just played, they're really emotional. But at the same time, inside, I feel a lot better

than I used to feel about that. And, you know, I feel like I've helped so many people. Like, after I opened up about it and put it on social media and obviously the Netflix documentary highlighted a lot more of it. I've almost been a beacon for people who are struggling. And, you know, when they feel like they're overwhelmed and they're going towards, you know, drinking and drugs and stuff, they open up and they feel like I'm relatable.

Because if someone like me can, first of all, make it to the tennis tour and then deal with all that as well as playing, like those nights that I was having were before playing people like Raphael and Adel, you know, playing quality players on the H-B tour, and still being successful, I guess, where I was in the darkest period in my life. So if I'm able to pull myself out of it, that's one of the being the most powerful thing in my career

is people come to me with genuine issues and they send me photos in my Instagram DMs of them, you know, self-harming and genuinely wanting to commit suicide. And I have conversations with these people. Sometimes, you know, I've had phone calls with these people. And, you know, that's making a real difference from my career. And I'm just really proud that I'm, you know, I watch those clips and I'm not really emotional about it.

I start smiling because I know now the importance of family and how much those loved ones actually just wanted to care for me and protect me through all the criticism and when I couldn't deal with it. But now, you know, it's night and day different. What was the absolute rock bottom moment for you when you look back at that period? Oh, there was, I don't think there was one select moment.

I think it was just all a year and a half to two years of just complete, just harm. I think it was, it was pretty dark, to be honest. You know, I won tournaments, you know, on the professional tour, drinking every night, self-harming. I used to, you know, it was burning things on my arm, cutting myself for fun. And, you know, I had people around me saying, this is not normal behaviour. And I did have people around me that were caring, but I just, it was almost the more I kept doing it, it became an addiction of, like, pain and and you know I just didn't like I hated myself I hated waking up and being

Nick Curios I hated going to places and tournaments and no one actually wanted to talk to me at face value they just wanted me to be the the entertainer or the crazy Nick Curios so I didn't feel like who I actually was was of any worth and it just got out of control but then you know I somehow dug myself out of the hole so nothing you say on Twitter can can faze me peers nothing that is very obvious actually um what also came clear was that Andy Murray saw these marks on your arms, and he reached out to you, didn't he? How important was that?

Yeah, Andy. Andy was always a big supporter of me. As soon as I came on the tour, I don't know, he kind of saw a work in progress, I think, and he always tried and took me under his wing, and then he realized later in my career that I don't think I was coachable or could, you know, I was on my own path. But he was always someone that was looking out for me

and one of the best for me. So, yeah, he saw it and he said, well, what's that on your arm? And he was pretty bad at that stage. And these are people in the locker room. So I'd be in the locker room and people would be able to see myself harm. So I could only imagine what people would think when they were actually versing me on the tennis court. They're like, wow, this guy is mentally in a storm at the moment and he's still trying to play. And it would have been alarming for some of these players to see it.

And Andy was saying, look, obviously he was trying to give me advice on it. But I was just so stuck in my ways at that time. that I didn't listen. And obviously I'm very thankful. If he ever watches this, I'm sure Kiraeos and Piers Morgan, I'm sure he's going to tune in at some stage. So, yeah, I thank him a lot. Was there one person who said something to you

which managed to start the beginning of the future for you? When you look back? Yeah, you just touched on it. Everyone that was in my circle and my loved ones always told me the right thing to do. But I guess it was just conversations that I had with myself. It was, at the end of the day, you can have everyone around you telling you which direction to go, but if you don't think that's the right way, then you're not going to get out of it.

And I just had a conversation with myself and I was like, look, we've got to do something about it. So I just tried little bit by little just to get some good habits, make some right choices. And yeah, last year was the best year of, arguably the best year of my career, nearly won a Grand Slam, had the third best season on the planet and I just from where I was to that it was so emotional for me personally

because I just didn't think it was possible I thought my time had gone where I'd have success off the court and on the court you know I had a great partner I had a great friendship group and had amazing success and I'd never thought it was possible to be this happy

but I think that it's just more I think it was me just day by day making the right choices I actually wanted you to win that final thanks I mean, I'm surprised you've ever wanted me to win a tennis match. I think you'd rather me just lose all the time. Well, instinctively, I don't like Australians winning anything, particularly cricket.

But no, I did. I felt like you just electrify the tournament. And, you know, I thought that this is a guy who's complicated, but I used to like watching McEnroe. I feel like over time, people have kind of been more comfortable with me just being Nick Kiroos. It's like, okay, we know that we're, if we buy tickets to Nick Kiroos, we don't know what we're going to get.

We could get explosive tennis, we could get entertaining tennis, we could get something absolutely off planet Earth that you've never seen before. He might do something crazy. And I think that's part of the show. I think sport and entertainment is one. And I think that's why it's important. You have to have different personalities in sport.

Otherwise, it will get a bit stale and boring. And I think you look at that Situ-Pass match with me in Wimbled and it was insane. Like, it was incredible. It was one of the best matches I've ever been a part of because of the crowd was involved. The people were involved. They made a Netflix documentary of it.

So, I mean, look, I've definitely had a lot of fun playing my style of tennis. But look, if you're going to compare me to the greats of tennis, then you've set me up for failure. You said, I don't mind being the villain. I've definitely experienced stadiums where not one person's been going for me. It's a great feeling. You find some really dark energy when the whole stadium doesn't want you to win. Those are some of the best moments. The only thing I've had like that in my life

was when I was a judge on America's Got Talent and I was playing the bad, you know, the tough, meany judge. And I know that feeling to a degree in the sense of when they're all booing me, I used to love it. And so I do get that dark energy part. I've had it in a very different way.

But I get it and I used to get off on it, right? I mean, and you clearly do. I've seen you. Yeah, you feel like the bad guy in a movie. You feel like the main villain and I love it. You know, I used to love going out, not so much anymore. When I go out to stadiums around the world now,

it's like people are cheering, people are going crazy, people wanting to see the Curios, I guess, the show. And they're very supportive where back in the day, when I used to show up to places, it was like, even for practice, even when I entered the site, I needed extra security guards compared to the other players because of the hate. People just used to hate seeing my presence around the courts

and they would boo my practices. They would throw, in Shanghai one year, people were throwing glass bottles on the courts. court. It was just, it was, it was a riot and something just drove me to, it was just like addictive. Every time I went out on the court, I knew that I could spoil someone's day. I knew that I could just upset someone, be the bad guy in the fairy tale. So it was, it was a good feeling, but I think being loved a little bit better, being, being appreciated and being supported is definitely, I think, healthier. But yeah, the villain was good for a little bit.

The, I mean, you talked about McEnroe being defaulted and you were very proud of the fact you've never got that far. You are the most fined player in the history of tennis. 452,000 pounds of fines. Are you proud of that record? It goes to charity, so on the flip side, I could be the most generous

ATP player ever. You said that with a completely straight face. Look, I'm not, I'm not... Look, sometimes when I watch my highlights back and I realize, look, I probably should have done that. Look, there's some regret in some of my action, are obviously. Like, I'm not going to sit here and say,

no, that was always warranted. No, sometimes I do cross the line. But competitors out there know that. And I think if you look at other sports, you know, trash talking's normal. You know, these behaviours aren't as, I guess, repulsive. But because it's tennis, it's under a microscope. It's very traditional.

And I understand that. You, I know you don't, well, you don't want it. You can't comment about the clip I'm about to show you from Wimbledon last year. But it was a famous clip. And really, I just want to play it to see what your face reactions late. Let's take a look. Okay, but why she's you still here?

I don't know which one is it. I know exactly which one it is. It's the one in the dress with the... The dog. The one that looks like she's out about 700 drinks, brother. I got to say, I did laugh. Yeah, that's just... It was here to the moment, and that's not the only time

that something like that's happened. You know, you're playing in the biggest tournaments in the world, Wimbledon, Australian Open, French Open, US Open at these crucial moments I think people sometimes spectators, they don't understand that it can just be a fall in concentration

for 20 seconds and then that can swing the entire tennis match and especially against someone like Novak I needed the stars to align that day but yeah look a hit of the moment quick chat you and I both know in the heat of the moment we do come up with some of our best stuff so yeah

look it's true I can't control sometimes I would like the crowd to understand the severity of just one point in a tennis match. One point in tennis match can swing for the next 20 minutes. So it's tough. At the start of your career when you were about 20 and things were really going off the rails, Shane warned, the late great Australian cricket,

he was a good friend of mine. He wrote an open letter to you. This is after that defeat to Andy Murray, after I did my tweet to you, actually. And he said, dear Nick Curios, I was going to read what he wrote. Dear Nick Curios, we all realize you're only 20, have a lot to learn, buddy.

Please don't waste your talent. Everyone in the world, especially us Australians, want to respect you. Remember, respect is way more important than being liked. You need to respect the game of tennis and yourself. We all make mistakes, but it's how we learn from them. And the way we conduct ourselves when we lose that shows true character. You're testing our patience, mate.

Show us what you're made of and how hungry you are to be the best in the world. It's time to step up and start winning. No excuse. No shame in losing. But show us you'll never. give up, you'll give everything to be the best you can be, respect is earned not given. I believe in you

I know you can do it, but now's the time, my friend. My first question is, did you see that, Opel and Lester at the time? Yeah, I saw it and didn't read it. But, yeah, look, I feel like I've been the closest Australian player

in the last decade to win the Grand Slam. I made the final. I've had a pretty successful career. I feel like I've won a lot more than I've lost. Able to provide for my family, friends. And yeah, respected by millions around the world, obviously. And yeah, I've done it my way. So look, at the end of the day,

I know that these other Australian athletes, you know, just wanted to see me succeed. And I've only ever supported most of them as well. And I've only wanted the best for them. I've never going to be the first one to go out on social media. and put someone down. If someone does that to me, I'll respond. But, yeah, look.

I mean, I look back at that letter and I look back of how far I've come and I'd say he would be proud for sure. I think he absolutely would. And there's a lot about your personality, which is very warning-like. It wasn't like he was any, by his own admission, he was no angel.

This was a guy that went through a lot of stuff himself. I think he genuinely was trying to give you advice from someone who'd been there in the cold face of the cauldron of international. sport, recognized you were young, saw some traits perhaps of his own, and was genuinely trying to help him. Did you ever meet Shane after that? No, I never, I never was able to meet Shane. I guess his schedule would have been, excuse me, his schedule would have been crazy and obviously with my travel. I think that would have been one person that would have

probably, we would have got along really, really well. But yeah, look, I haven't met too many of these Australian athletes just because the schedules are so different. And We just have a lot going on. Your early story, Nick, is really fascinating because you were the last of three children born to Georgia father and Nill your mother. Your dad emigrated to Australia from Greece, age seven, and was a decorator.

Your mom was born in Malaysia, as part of the royal family, actually, and moved to Australia with her mother when she was 12 and became a software engineer. It's an unusual pathway for some of the... like you to have come from this background and this journey your parents went on. How much is their, I guess, resilience they would have had to have had to have gone through all this when they were young? How much of that streak is in you from that, do you think? Huge. I mean, that's where most of my motivation comes from. You know, my dad is nearly

getting on the latest stages of 60 and continues to work every day. You know, his mindset, you know, came with nothing and everything that he's built. I guess he sees me kind of carrying the work and doing, you know, these interviews or, you know, being an entrepreneur in a couple of things and obviously playing the tennis. I think he's super proud because he sees, you know, some of his work ethic in me. And I try and that's really part of my motivation. And, you know, my mom obviously has dealt with so many different health issues over the last decade and especially over the last two years, you know, so every day with her is a blessing

and I understand that. And it's been hard. Playing majority of my career with my mom having severe health problems, it's been tough. but she's one of the strongest women I know. And yeah, those, I have, honestly, everyone that comes to my house, they understand how amazing my parents are. They look after everyone, they feed everyone, they make sure they try and connect with everyone, make everyone feel special.

And, yeah, I mean, look, they're the best. I have no complaints. I look back at some of the dinners that we had. You know, we had $20 for three children at dinners, and I didn't know any different. I was growing up thinking I had the best life. So she, my mum was awesome. My dad's awesome.

So that's, yeah. In May this year, your mother was held up at gunpoint by a masked man at the family's home in Canberra. You gave chase and actually injured your foot resulting in missing the French home. That's a scary thing to happen, particularly with your mother, having already going through health issues. Yeah, just tough. You know, thinking about that moment, it's still very raw. It was actually quite recent.

Just, yeah, that's something that I never thought that my career would bring would be people, you know, coming to my doorstep where my family have lived for 30 plus years and, you know, you hold a gun to my, to my mum and ask for a car. It's like to come steal a car. It's, you could take the car, but the trauma that you've left on my mom and our family is, I think you can't heal. ever from something like that. So yeah, look, my career has brought me many beautiful things and the platform I have to help people's amazing. But these are things that just I have to deal with that majority of humans don't deal with.

And it's been really hard for the family to get over that. But yeah, it was just a, it was a horrific morning, to be honest. I just remember my mom's screaming and I rushed to the front door, cut my foot on something, and it was just gashing our blood. And it was just a disaster. So, yeah, I mean, look, but we're a strong contingent.

We're going to get through it and my mum's doing, you know, she's seeing people to help her mental state over it still and, you know, she'll be fine. Did you, what happened to the person that did this? I think he's, you know, legally going to get dealt with and we'll see. Your mother recently also said that

she can't watch you play anymore. That it just makes her too anxious. And she's stopped watching. How did you feel about that? Yeah, well, she's got a pacemaker now as well, so I don't think she could come to any of my matches, especially Australian Open or Wimbledon with the ups and downs and the craziness that happens.

I mean, it's just too risky. So she watches from home. So my whole team usually comes watch me play, and if I'm in Australia, everyone will come watch live, and she'll just stay back at the accommodation and wherever we're staying and just watch it on TV and support me from there. And I know that she's watching me all the time.

I've stressed that woman out so much, and I'm sorry. I'll say that on probably one of the biggest shows ever. But she's really proud of my work and how much that I've grown. But yeah, I just wish that maybe she can watch me, you know, one last time if I, you know, once I come back from injury and I'm playing at the Australian Open, I would love for her to come just one more match. That would be a dream, you know, to watch her.

Because she was the one from day dot that was always there from under eights to tens to now. So it would be really, really, really special if she can tough it out for her for a, for a, couple years more. She did a piece of when she talked about her own upbringing and when she first came from Malaysia to Australia age 12 so it was quite traumatic. She said I can remember sitting on a bench wishing that someone would ask me to play those memories are very painful to be isolated to be called whatever names people call someone with dark skin. So that was racism she was experiencing. Yeah we've the Kirios family has definitely dealt with their fair share of racism in Australia.

But look, it's just such a silly topic for me. I don't like speaking about it. But yeah, it's been tough for us. You know, some of the legends of our sport have told me and my family to go back to where we came from. And, you know, we've, I was born in Australia, grown up there and represented the country

for 27 years with anything I've done. So it's definitely been something that we've had to deal with. But it just makes you stronger. I've got incredibly thick skin and it's all a process. And one day I hope that this topic's just not mentioned anymore. Yeah, when you said that it's a silly thing for you, do you mean that it's just something you have to constantly get asked about and deal with and you'd rather that you could just be judged on the content literally of your character and your play

than anything to do with your skin colour or background? Yeah, definitely. I just feel like, you know, you look at my friendship group. I have, you know, I have all different. types of friends from everywhere and we just get along so well and I think it's just such a silly topic. You know, we're all human beings at the end of the day. We can all, when we work together

we all do some incredible things together and yeah, you know, whether you're white or black doesn't matter to me. So I'm, yeah, it's just a very silly topic. You, um, your old agent first spotted you wrote down on his notepad at the time.

Chubby, mouthy, but unbelievable hand skills. You're definitely not chubby anymore. and you've got unbelievable hand skills still and you're still pretty mouthy. So he was, two out of three survived, but it's quite amazing your physical transformation. When you look at that picture of yourself,

can you believe that guy has become one of the great athletes of his country? I mean, I'll take that as you call me good-looking. Thanks, Pierce. My compliments are hard to come by from you. But yeah, look, I look at these photos of when I was young and, yeah, there's a fair glow-up, that's for sure. But yeah, look, I didn't think, I think that's just hope. You look at those pictures when I was young

and any kid that has dreams and things they want to achieve. Just that's your inspiration right there, for sure. Like, I was overweight most of my life. So if I'm able to pull it together and, you know, just keep chipping away. It doesn't happen overnight. Chipping away, chipping away. You can get Piers Morgan to call you good looking on TV.

I think I actually said you, lost weight. I didn't go as far as saying you're good-looking. No, I don't know. We'll replay that. We'll save that clip. I'm definitely posting that. Tell me about your love life, because you're very happy with Coz, Hatsy. You met online in 2021. And within months, you took a bold move, Nick Curios. You tattooed her name on your thigh.

That is a perilous thing to do early in a relationship. Yeah, it is. Yeah, me and Cos met almost, we've almost been together. for two years, December 31st is our anniversary. So yeah, life with her has been amazing. I feel like, you know, you love someone when you're being given a bit of adversity. We, you know, we traveled the world together with airports, we had delays, you know, things that I've come from, the baggage that I've brought into the relationship. She's dealt with it amazing.

And we just get along well. Everything's easy with her. And back to the tattoo. I was actually in a tattoo parlor and I was getting something covered up. And then she was like, I was like, do you want me to get you tattooed? It was just like, I just threw it out there. And then she was like, no, no, you don't have to. And then secretly I knew that that was me shooting myself in the foot.

I was like, oh no, I have to do it. I have to do it now. So she was like, no, you better do it. And then I had to get a little one on my leg. And yeah, it's fine. You know, she's definitely the one of, I'm past all that drama in relationships. It's a special one. When you said you were covering something out,

that wasn't the name of the previous girlfriend, was it? Maybe. So you've done your research. Actually, I was guessing, but it made sense. Oh, you're guessing. I was. I was legitimately guessing. There's nothing on here that says you were getting rid of a previous girl's name. But it makes sense.

If you're impetuous and put women's names on your thighs, you're going to have to get rid of some of them, right? Yeah, I guess so. Do you think you're going to get married? I know you want four kids, she wants two. I know that much, but you're going to get married? How do you know this stuff? You secretly love Nick Curios. You're a stalker.

You know why I know? Because I'm a proper professional journalist at the top of my game, like you in tennis. Hey, that's true. I'll give you props. I'll give you props. You are very professional.

And yeah, look, one day definitely. You know, I'm 28 now and obviously want to have a big family one day. You know, I think I'm a very family-orientated person. So is she. She's got an amazing family back home in Sydney. So, yeah, I would love to have a basketball. ball team, but I'll try it like that five, six maybe. But yeah, I think she's just set on two.

So we'll see. I'll ask you a question. I ask Christiana Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, because you're obviously at that level, which is, let me give you a choice. You can win Wimbledon next year. You can beat Jokovic in an absolute thriller. Or you can have great sex, but you can't have both. Which one are you going to take? This is a tough question. It's not really a tough question. I'm taking option two. Really?

Because look, I've made the final already, so I mean, I'm not going to lose option two. What are you going to do about your career? A lot of rumours flying around that you were going to give up, retire, if you'd beaten Djokovic last year, but you're still young. I mean, Djokovic is like eight years older than you.

Are you really going to throw the towel in anytime soon? I mean, I mean, not in an era where Christiana Ronald on these guys they show you can go until 40? I mean, could you not be doing this in five, six years, maybe longer? Yeah, I think, you know, soccer's got a little bit of a different, you know, setting, you know, you don't have to compete at the absolute highest level

in the EPL or, you know, the league. You have all these different leagues where you can get paid amazing amounts and kind of not play it maybe, you know, 60, 70%. If that was an option for tennis, definitely I would reassess my options. You know, at the moment, I'm dealing with some health issues. so just trying to get back healthy.

I definitely don't see myself going anywhere in the near future, but I want to get back on the tour and have one to two more really, really good years. And I think that's possible. And then after, if there's some more leagues that are offering some nice money, then yeah, I'll definitely look on extending my career, but there's a lot of work in the tennis world that needs to be done.

And yeah, look, I'm a day-by-day guy. I don't like setting goals or plans. I just take every day and see how my body's feeling. And, you know, when I have kids one day, I want to be able to, you know, run outside without pain and play with them and still be pretty youthful. So, yeah, look, plans can change.

Nick Kierios, it's been actually a great pleasure, and I mean that. You've given a great interview. I've grown to know you a lot better, and I think I understand you a lot better. And like I say, I was cheering you on last summer, and I can't wait for you to be back in action. And I feel like we should go to the dog and fox in Melbourne Village

where I used to go as a kid. and we should just have a few pints and, you know, take this bromance to the next stage. Oh, you twist them, I'm on. I don't know if I can take you up on a few beers. Who knows? Nick Curios, thank you very much. See you, peers.

See you later.