Nick Kyrgios
Nicholas Hilmy Kyrgios, nicknamed "Kygs", is an Australian professional tennis player. Kyrgios currently ranks 673 in the ATP and has been ranked as high as world No. 13 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals, achieved on 24 October 2016. He has won seven ATP Tour singles titles, including the 2019 and 2022 Washington Open, and reached eleven finals, most notably a major final at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships. In doubles, Kyrgios has a career-high ranking of world No. 11, achieved on 7 November 2022, winning a major doubles title at the 2022 Australian Open while partnering with Thanasi Kokkinakis.
Kyrgios is only the third player, after Dominik Hrbatý and Lleyton Hewitt, to have beaten each one of the Big Three the first time he played against them. Kyrgios is often described as a "polarising player" because of his "unique, unfiltered and unapologetic personality" which goes alongside his "on-court brilliance and audacious shot-making" in both singles and doubles. In his junior career, Kyrgios won the singles event at the 2013 Australian Open and the doubles events at the 2012 French Open, 2012 Wimbledon Championships and 2013 Wimbledon Championships.
Early life and family
Kyrgios was born on 27 April 1995 in Canberra, Australia, to a father of Greek origin, George, and a Malay mother, Norlaila. His father is a self-employed house painter, and his mother is a retired computer engineer. His mother was born in Malaysia as a member of the Pahang royal family, but she dropped her title as a princess when she moved to Australia in her twenties. He has two siblings: a sister, Halimah, and a brother, Christos. Kyrgios's paternal grandparents are from Georgani, a small village in Ioannina, Greece; they moved to Australia in 1960.Kyrgios attended Radford College until Year 8 and completed his Year 12 certificate in 2012 at Daramalan College in Canberra. He also played basketball in his early teens before deciding to focus solely on tennis when he was 14 years old. Two years later, he received a full scholarship at the Australian Institute of Sport, where he was able to further develop his tennis.
In 2013, Kyrgios relocated his training base from Canberra to Melbourne Park in an attempt to further his career with better facilities and hitting partners. A year later, Tennis ACT announced a $27 million redevelopment of the Lyneham Tennis Centre in Canberra to lure Kyrgios back home and host Davis Cup and Fed Cup ties. Kyrgios confirmed in January 2015 that he would return home and base himself in Canberra. He also donated $10,000 towards the redevelopment of the Lyneham Tennis Centre there.
Junior career
Kyrgios played his first junior match in 2008 at the age of 13 at a grade 4 tournament in Australia. He won his first ITF junior tour title in Fiji in June 2010, aged 15. He started to compete more regularly on the junior tour in 2011, making his junior grand slam debut at the 2011 Australian Open. During 2012 he won two junior grand slam doubles titles and rose to junior world number three, though he withdrew from the Australian Open Men's Wildcard Playoff due to injury.Moving into 2013, he gained the number 1 junior ranking by defeating Wayne Montgomery in the Traralgon International final. A week later he entered the Australian Open as the juniors number 3 seed and progressed to the final against fellow Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis. After saving two set points in the first set, Kyrgios won his first and only junior grand slam title. He also won Wimbledon junior doubles with Kokkinakisnad.
Professional career
2012–2013: Turning pro
In 2012, in his first-round qualifying match at the Australian Open, Kyrgios won the first set in a tiebreak, but his opponent Mathieu Rodrigues cruised through the second and third sets to defeat him. In March 2012, Ouyang Bowen was the first player that Kyrgios defeated in a professional tournament, at an ITF Futures event, in Japan. Kyrgios continued to compete on the 2012 ITF Men's Circuit for the rest of the season, competing in tournaments in Australia, Germany, Japan and Slovenia. At the end of the season, he had reached a semifinal and a quarterfinal in Australian tournaments. He finished the year ranked No. 838. In 2013, Kyrgios started the season by playing at the 2013 Brisbane International, losing in the first round of qualifying to James Duckworth. He then lost in the first round of qualifying at the 2013 Australian Open to Bradley Klahn in straight sets. After winning the Boys' Singles, Kyrgios said his goal was to reach the top 300 by the end of the year.At the 2013 Nature's Way Sydney Tennis International, Kyrgios defeated fellow Australian Matt Reid in straight sets in the finals to win his first challenger tour title at the age of 17. Kyrgios was given a wildcard into the qualifying competition of the 2013 French Open, but on 20 May it was announced that John Millman was withdrawing from the main draw due to injury, such that Kyrgios's wildcard was raised to the main draw. This meant he would compete in a main draw of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time. In the first round, Kyrgios had the biggest win of his career to date against the former world No. 8 Radek Štěpánek in three sets, each ending in tiebreaks, giving him the first ATP Tour level win of his career.
Although he lost to Marin Čilić in the following round, his ranking rose to No. 213. Kyrgios later qualified for the 2013 US Open, where he was beaten by fourth seed David Ferrer in his opening match. He reached a new career high ranking of No. 186 on 9 September 2013. In October, Kyrgios made the semifinal of the 2013 Sacramento Challenger, before falling to Tim Smyczek. He ended the 2013 season with a singles ranking of 182.
2014: Wimbledon quarterfinal
At the beginning of the 2014 season, Kyrgios was set to debut at the 2014 Brisbane International as a wildcard, but withdrew due to a shoulder injury. On 8 January, Kyrgios was awarded a wildcard into the 2014 Australian Open, where he won his first round match against Benjamin Becker. However, he lost in the second round to Benoît Paire, in five sets. Kyrgios received a wildcard into the 2014 U.S. National Indoor Tennis Championships, where he lost in the first round to Tim Smyczek in three sets. Kyrgios was then forced to withdraw from numerous ATP tournaments in Delray Beach and Acapulco due to an elbow injury.At the 2014 Sarasota Open, Kyrgios reached the final by defeating Jarmere Jenkins, Rubén Ramírez Hidalgo, Donald Young and Daniel Kosakowski. He defeated Filip Krajinović in straight sets for his second career challenger title. Following this, Kyrgios defeated Jack Sock to win the 2014 Savannah Challenger. As a wildcard at the 2014 French Open, Kyrgios was defeated in the first round in straight sets by Milos Raonic. Kyrgios then won his fourth career challenger title at the 2014 Aegon Nottingham Challenge, beating fellow Australian Sam Groth in straight-set tiebreaks. In June, Kyrgios received a wildcard to the 2014 Wimbledon Championships. After defeating Stéphane Robert in the first round, he went on to beat Richard Gasquet in a five-set second-round thriller; wherein, he lost the first two sets and saved nine match points. In the third round, Kyrgios beat Jiří Veselý, before going on to get the biggest win of his career so far by beating World No. 1 Rafael Nadal in four sets –– becoming the first male debutant to reach the Wimbledon quarterfinals since Florian Mayer, in 2004. The 'shot of the match' was a rear-forehand, half-volley winner from between Kyrgios's legs that David Polkinghorne, of The Canberra Times, called "freakish" and "audacious". Kyrgios subsequently lost to Milos Raonic in four sets in the quarterfinals. This Wimbledon performance helped Kyrgios make it into the top 100 of the ATP World Rankings for the first time in his career: i.e. Kyrgios's ranking rose to No. 66.
Post-Wimbledon, at the Rogers Cup tournament in Toronto, Kyrgios earned his first ATP World Tour Masters event win, with a first round victory over Santiago Giraldo in straight sets. However, Kyrgios lost in the second round to Andy Murray, winning just four games.
In the US Open, Kyrgios made it to the third round, defeating Mikhail Youzhny and Andreas Seppi on his way, before losing to 16th seed Tommy Robredo. Kyrgios later played in the Malaysian Open, but lost in the first round. He skipped the rest of the season, citing burnout. He ended the year ranked No. 52 in the world, and the No. 2 ranked Australian behind Lleyton Hewitt.
2015: First final, top 30
Kyrgios started the season off at the Sydney International, but lost his opening match against Jerzy Janowicz in three tightly contested sets. During the 2015 Australian Open, Kyrgios received direct entry into the tournament for the first time due to his ranking. In his opening match, he defeated Federico Delbonis in a five-set thriller, before going on to beat Ivo Karlović and Malek Jaziri in second and third rounds, respectively. He then faced Andreas Seppi, who had just beaten Roger Federer in his previous match, in the fourth round. Kyrgios fell two sets behind and faced down a match point in the fourth set but recovered to win in five sets. As a result, Kyrgios became the first male teenager to reach two Grand Slam quarterfinals since Federer in 2001, the first Australian male to reach the quarterfinals since Hewitt in 2005, and the first Australian of any gender to reach the quarterfinals since Jelena Dokic in 2009. In the quarterfinals, Kyrgios lost to eventual finalist Andy Murray in straight sets. After the tournament, he reached a career-high ranking of no. 35 in the world.Kyrgios later withdrew from tournaments in Marseille and Dubai due to a back injury he suffered during the Australian Open. In Indian Wells, he served for the match against Grigor Dimitrov, but rolled his ankle and ultimately lost. Kyrgios returned in the Barcelona Open. After receiving a bye in the first round, he lost in three sets to fellow 19-year-old Elias Ymer. At the Estoril Open, Kyrgios reached the final of an ATP tournament for the first time in his career, after defeating Albert Ramos Viñolas, Filip Krajinović, Robin Haase and Pablo Carreño Busta. He then lost the final to Richard Gasquet, in straight sets.
At the Madrid Open a week later, Kyrgios defeated world No. 2 and 17-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer in the second round, after saving two match points in the final set tiebreak. He then had a three-set loss to John Isner in the third round. At this point, until his finalist appearance at Estoril and third round finish in Madrid, Kyrgios had the unique distinction of having won more Grand Slam matches than ATP Tour matches.
At the French Open, Kyrgios was seeded 29th, his first Grand Slam seeding. He won in straight sets in the first round against Denis Istomin. He then received a walkover into the third round, after Kyle Edmund withdrew with injury. In the third round, he lost in straight sets to third seed Andy Murray. In the doubles, Kyrgios and partner Mahesh Bhupathi lost in the first round to wildcards Thanasi Kokkinakis and Lucas Pouille.
At the 2015 Wimbledon Championships, Kyrgios opened with straight-set victories over Diego Schwartzman and Juan Mónaco in the first and second rounds, respectively. In the third round, despite losing the first set, he advanced past seventh seed Milos Raonic ––before losing to Gasquet in the fourth round, squandering set points in the fourth. He also played mixed doubles with Madison Keys, but only reached the second round. Kyrgios fell out of the top 40 in the rankings following the tournament.