Federico Coria suggests Nick Kyrgios should not have been giving any opinions on his decision to ask Novak Djokovic for an on-court selfie and autograph, before adding that he also could deliver some strong words to the Australian.
If you can recall, Coria made the quarterfinal at the ATP 250 tournament in Belgrade in 2021. As a reward, the Argentinian got a chance to play against Djokovic. The record 24-time Grand Slam champion absolutely dominated the match, registering a dominant 6-1 6-0 win.
Despite the brutal loss, Coria stopped Djokovic with a smile after the match and asked the Serb if he could get a selfie and autograph his shirt. The home favorite gladly granted those requests.
The situation quickly went viral on social media and drew Kyrgios' attention. While some absolutely loved the moment between Coria and Djokovic, Kyrgios harshly criticized the Argentinian, blasting him as "unprofessional" and describing his mentality as "strange."
Coria slams Kyrgios' criticism: From where are you coming from to say that to me?
“When I played against Djokovic, he absolutely destroyed me — and I still asked him for a photo,. Then Kyrgios came out and criticized me, saying, ‘How can you ask for a photo after getting beaten like that? That’s so unprofessional.’ I wanted to tell him, ‘Mate, you don’t know my story. You don’t know what it means for me to be playing a quarterfinal, in Serbia, against the best player in history, when just two years ago I was about to retire because I couldn’t win a match,'" Coria recalled.
“So, from where are you coming from to say that to me? You know what I’d say to you? That you hide behind the excuse of giving it your all — you’ve got insane talent, but you don’t have the guts to put it on the line and do things the right way. Because you’ve got everything it takes to be top-5. Maybe he’d say the same to me — ‘you don’t know that I…’ — and then we’d go back and forth. But honestly, I still respect him a lot.”
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At his peak, Coria was ranked at No. 49 in the world. Currently, the Argentinian tennis player sits at No. 196 in the world and he is nowadays mostly playing on the Challenger Tour.
