Nick Kyrgios Names Novak Djokovic The GOAT, Calls Out Umpire While On Call At Australian Open

Nick Kyrgios may not be playing in this year's Australian Open, but he and his electric personality are still making headlines during tennis' first grand slam of the year.

'The Bad Boy of Tennis' is doing commentary work with ESPN and various other broadcasting teams throughout the tournament. As expected, and thankfully, he's remained his genuinely authentic self in front of the cameras. That was on full display during Thursday night's action while he was taking in Novak Djokovic's third-round win.

While in Eurosport's commentary box, Kyrgios complained about the umpire giving Djokovic a time violation. With Djokovic comfortably winning the first two sets of the match, Kyrgios joked that the umpire simply handed out the violation because they were bored with the match.

That's the sort of honest commentary not only most tennis fans are after, but it's fair to say sports fans in general appreciate moments like that.

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Nick Kyrgios Names The Tennis GOAT

Kyrgios ridiculing the umpire wasn't the only interesting note from his time in the commentator's box on Thursday night. He went ahead and named Djokovic the greatest men's tennis player of all time.

He offered up an interesting asterisk, so to speak, regarding Roger Federer while naming The Joker the GOAT.

"The greatest of all time is definitely Novak. But that doesn’t mean - if I said who would I want to go out there and want to watch, Roger Federer is the nicest to watch. He’s the most talented, makes the game look effortless, like the Michael Jordan of tennis," Kyrgios explained.

"Without Roger would there have been a Novak, a Nadal, someone to chase? But statistics you know, it’s hard to have a conversation anymore. He’s the most complete player, on all surfaces as well. Because Nadal is dominant on one surface whereas Novak has had that pretty much everywhere."

It's a fair assessment from Kyrgios, who in the past declared LeBron James the GOAT of basketball.

As for Kyrgios declaring Djokovic as the GOAT of tennis, it is certainly hard to argue. He holds the record for most all-time major singles titles with 24. Djokovic is still chasing Jimmy Conner's 109-title record, but Kyrgios went on to predict that he'll surpass that mark while picking up three or four more Grand Slam titles before calling it quits.