Nick Kyrgios denies himself to be labelled as the bad boy of the game after his sledging incident with Stan Wawrinka made the headlines for all the wrong reasons earlier in the year.
Kyrgios attracted attention for negative reasons after telling Stan — "[Thanasi] Kokkinakis banged your girlfriend. Sorry to tell you that mate" — in the second round of Rogers Cup. That incident earned him a $10,000 fine by ATP.
When asked it feels to be the bad boy of tennis, he replied: "I am not the bad boy of tennis to be honest."
"I always try to win every time I am on the court. Sometimes the emotion gets the best of me." He added: "Off the court as well I am a relaxed guy and try to help whoever I can. I try to help kids. I really don't know where this came from."
He is also convinced that Stan would have moved on from the incident and there won't be any differences between them when they team up for Slammers in the upcoming legs.
"It's been a longtime since the incident. We both moved on," he said.
"He played great tennis after that so I don't think it affected him much. He is a great player. We are on same team, trying to win. I will do everything I can do to make him win like get him drink, water or towel."
When asked if they have interacted since, he said: "Not much, we know its coming. We are going to be professional and deal with it"
Nick also termed the 2015 season as a successful one for him. "looking back at it, I think it is a successful season. I finished in the top-30, reached the quarterfinal of a Grand Slam [Australian Open] and I am going into the seeding for the Australian Open. This year is pretty important," he explained.