Andrew Castle feels Rafael Nadal will be ‘cross’ and hurting after Novak Djokovic surpassed him for the most major men’s singles titles in history.
Djokovic won the French Open last month to secure his 23rd Grand Slam title and is the heavy favourite at Wimbledon as he looks to move two ahead of Nadal’s 22.
Nadal is not featuring at this year’s Championships and has not played since January amid huge injury problems.
The Spanish tennis legend recently confirmed that 2024 is likely to be his final year on the ATP Tour before retirement.
Speaking about Djokovic overtaking Nadal for the most Grand Slam titles, Castle told Metro.co.uk: ‘I do [think Rafa will be hurting].
‘It amuses me when somebody that used to hold a record no longer holds a record and everyone’s looking at their Twitter feed to see whether they send congratulations and how sincere it sounds!
‘Then they get interviewed and you know, I mean, I saw Linford Christie had his 100 metre British record broken. And you know, do you think Linford really wanted somebody to beat his record? I mean, I don’t know, I doubt it very much.
Kyrgios is notorious for his behaviour on and off the tennis court and divides opinion for his fiery antics but Castle is a big fan of the Australian.
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‘I think Nick Kyrgios is great for the game,’ Castle added. ‘And you know, it doesn’t matter whether or not I approve of it or if everybody approves of everything that he does.
‘But you know, once again, it’s about having an opinion. It’s about coming down one side or the other with the character and with Nick, you have to have an opinion. You either love him or you hate him.
‘He’s the classic Marmite story. And the fact is that, because he’s unpredictable you never know what he’s going to do and one day he plays like a genius, the next he’s smashing his rackets up and telling everyone to jump off and he’s out the tournament back on an aeroplane.
‘You know, that is quite a captivating story. And it, you know, if he was no good at tennis then fine, but he is good and he’s a Wimbledon finalist so I would say unequivocally he’s good for the game.
‘He’s not bigger than the game, he’s just very good for it. The guy’s box office, he pulls people in.’
Kyrgios recently revealed he ended up in a psychiatric ward in London four years ago amid struggles with self-harming and suicidal thoughts.
Castle has praised Kyrgios for speaking out about his mental health and feels the sport has come a long way.
‘There’s no way you can go through everything that he has, in his public and personal life, and not be affected,’ Castle said.
‘I mean, everyone’s human. If you listen to the Netflix series [Break Point] and you hear what he has to say, then you’ve got to have sympathy.
‘Clearly he gets extremely angry on court, he vents all the time. That is normally an illustration of somebody that is carrying some angst. Again, it makes for a casual viewer, it makes for an interesting watch.
‘But you know, we take very seriously in the sport and we all do, much more than we used to. Any moment where anybody says the things that he has because, you know men particularly are not very good at opening up and sharing mental health issues that they’ve got.
‘So, I guess it’s to be welcomed and I look back to the 80s and the early 90s when I was playing there’s absolutely no doubt that you know many, many people travelling the world alone, losing.
‘You know, it’s not an easy life. You lose every week pretty much and you have to deal with it and you’re a long way from home. So, you may not have the support group, but you know, the tours are pretty good at supporting now.’
Andrew Castle was speaking to Metro.co.uk on behalf of Grosvenor Sport.
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