Ex-Wimbledon Nick Kyrgios finalist ‘nearly denied entry’ to tournament after being ‘body searched’

Wimbledon’s security staff did not make an exception for 2022 finalist Nick Kyrgios when he tried to get in on Friday, despite knowing who the controversial Australian was

Nick Kyrgios says he was body searched by security at Wimbledon because he did not have ID to prove who he was. Kyrgios is not playing at Wimbledon for the third straight year due to injury, but is working at the Grand Slam as a pundit.

The Australian is one of the most famous faces in tennis, having earned a reputation as being the sport’s bad boy. While he has fallen foul of the rules, the 30-year-old has also enjoyed some great times at the All England Club, having reached the final in 2022, where he lost to Novak Djokovic.

Kyrgios was dropped by the BBC as a commentator this year, but is working for talkSPORT during the two-week tournament. Despite being a former finalist, it seems he is treated no differently to everyone else who enters the grounds.

Speaking on talkSPORT’s Wimbledon: Unfiltered, Kyrgios said: “Look, I’m not normally one to say: ‘Do you know who I am?’ when I’m trying to get into events.

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“But today, my agent was like okay, let’s try and pick up your credentials just to save someone a ground pass and I was sitting there and she asked: ‘Do you have a photo ID?’

“I had just got a new phone, because it was broken, I didn’t have any photos… and she laughed before she asked me, so she clearly knew who I was but was just following protocol.

“I said, ‘do you reckon you could get me in and give me my credentials just one time’ and she was like: ‘No.’ I went: ‘Seriously? Please’, but they said they can’t do that. Then I got body searched. They told me to put all of my stuff down and I got body searched.”

Mirror Sport contacted the All England Club to request comment. As Kyrgios himself acknowledged, the member of security staff was merely following protocol.

Asked if it had happened before, Kyrgios added: “Yes and no. There’s been clips of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal not being let into some changing rooms because they didn’t have credentials and stuff. But I don’t know, me getting body searched in front of the crowd was something I’d never thought would happen to me at Wimbledon, but it did.”

He added: “It was probably just a Kyrgios treat… if you’re going to wear the black hat and be a villain, then you’ve got to deal with some of that stuff. I did [keep it cool], I didn’t say ‘Do you know who I am?’.

“I was asked do you have any ID, but I replied: ‘Does Google work?’. I guess that was kind of like a little dig.”