Tennis fans are counting the days until the sport returns down under at the 2025 United Cup in Perth. It’s getting noisy on the socials before a ball has been hit. The traditional British pantomime season means that for every good guy, there’s a bad Santa waiting to shake up the Christmas decorations. That man is Nick Kyrgios who wasted no time in taking aim at the previously unimpeachable Jannik Sinner. It will be interesting should the two meet on Rod Laver Arena next month.

Speaking on the Nothing Major Podcast, Kyrgios was talking about his imminent return to the game at the Brisbane International after spending two years out of action with a number of recurring injuries. “Let’s be honest, I just want to go out there and play him (Sinner). I 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,” said the 2022 Wimbledon runner-up.

This was the brash Kyrgios (is there another version?) talking, a fast and loose undiluted take of his thoughts on a podcast that acted like the spoken word version of his social media accounts. An increasingly bit-part player, Kyrgios’s aim has been to open up his life story through content platforms like OnlyFans. In the absence of matches, the 29-year-old is using his own advice to engage off the court as well as on it to to win or lose hearts and minds.

The 2022 Australian Open doubles champion has been one of the most outspoken critics of the handling of Sinner’s two positive drug tests earlier this year. The Italian escaped a ban after successfully arguing that the banned substance clostebol entered his system via contamination. WADA are currently pushing for up to a two-year sanction despite the findings of the independent tribunal.

“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,” Kyrgios remarked.

Kyrgios, in his own inimitable style, has touched upon something here. The rivalry in sport has to have an edge for audiences to be engaged. The levels of respect between players is one thing but there needs to be something else to ignite the flame. Carlos Alcaraz and Sinner’s team flying with each other to the Shanghai Masters raised a few eyebrows.

The current Wimbledon men’s singles champion argued that tennis relationships are very good off the court and this is what makes the sport unique. “Because we are fighting against each other, three hour match, really close – he could win. At the end I got the win, and then two hours later we are in the same plane having some laughs, making jokes, talking about life and acting like nothing happened before,” explained Alcaraz.

Others would contend that sparks need to fly rather than players. Jimmy Connors made it a war out there. His epic matches with John McEnroe were fueled by distaste. Pat Cash and Ivan Lendl never saw eye to eye. Even Djokovic’s entourage got under the skin of the cool and calm Roger Federer. Kyrgios and Rafa Nadal was a riveting watch in Sw19 for their different takes on life.

There was a significant drop in viewing figures for the men’s singles at the last major of the season at Flushing Meadows. Sinner’s rather routine win against Taylor Fritz in the US Open men’s final averaged 1.8 million viewers across ABC and ESPN+, which was over 3o per cent down from the 2023 final between Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev. Even Alcaraz’s Wimbledon win over the Serb was virtually the same percentage drop from their epic 2023 encounter.

Sinner and Alcaraz have had some superb matches – the China Open was one ATP tour final for the ages – but there’s an uneasy chasm to jump between the end of the Big Four Era and the wave of Next Gen talent. Djokovic will return for a shot at an eleventh Melbourne title with Andy Murray as coach. That’s old news repackaged into a new lease of life for both men and enhances the tournament interest.

These are challenges that will only become greater in 2025. Modifications, rule changes and rewiring the approach to the game via the Ultimate Tennis Showdown are all big hints that modern life demands a different approach. Creating player interest via the Netflix series Break Point didn’t quite hit the bullseye either in the way that Drive to Survive has for Formula One. The series was scrapped in March with the Times of London citing poor ratings and a lack of access to the major figures in the sport as reasons.

Tennis 2025 sounds futuristic. That’s where the game must go to try and weave its mix of tradition and 21st-century tweaks. Kyrgios says Alcaraz and Sinner don’t have the aura of Federer and Djokovic. That’s understandable. What they need is to leave the crowd – at home and in the stadium – wanting more. In a tennis schedule that asks more of the players, it will be difficult.