The grass swing of the tour might be three months away, but Australia’s Nick Kyrgios is already targeting glory on the surface.
World No.16 Kyrgios has recently displayed his top-10 credentials with back-to-back wins over Novak Djokovic in Acapulco and Indian Wells. At Indian Wells the 22-year-old progressed to the quarter-finals for the first time in his career before an unfortunate case of food poisoning ended his run.
Notching up wins over Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer is his career, few can doubt the talent of the sometimes controversial player. Kyrgios’ route to the main stage of tennis began with a run to the quarter-finals at the 2014 Wimbledon championships at the age of 19. Since then, his love for the grass has not diminished. This year he will kick-start his grass season at the Aegon Championships in London.
“I’m real excited and pumped to be coming back to Queen’s,” Kyrgios recently said.
“It’s a great tournament, with Wimbledon soon after, and I love playing on grass. It’s my favourite surface, it suits my game a lot and I’m expecting big things on grass this year.”
Since 2014, Kyrgios has had to settle for two fourth round appearance at SW19. In 2015 he crashed out to Richard Gasquet followed by Andy Murray last year. Despite his recent performances at the grass-court extravaganza, this year Kyrgios believes that he is on course to play his best tennis to date.
“I don’t think the British people have seen the best of me yet. I was very young when I had that run at Wimbledon. Mentally I have improved a lot recently, I’m in a great place at the moment, I feel like I’ve matured and that’s helping me. I’m playing better tennis, I’m getting some better results.” He said.
There is no lack of confidence for Kyrgios, who is blessed was a blistering serve, as well as some nifty shot-making. During a Twitter question and answer session on Sunday, the Australian has rated his Wimbledon chances as ‘high.’ He has also listed the Centre Court as one of his favourite courts to play on.
According to statistics provided by the ATP Tour, Kyrgios has a 68.4% winning record on the grass. He has played 19 main draw tour matches on the surface, winning 13 of those.
‘Grass is my favourite surface. I’m looking forward to @QueensTennis and @Wimbledon‘ – @NickKyrgios
Tickets – https://t.co/iRsf3khAkv pic.twitter.com/o7VvmP2tKP
— Aegon Championships (@QueensTennis) 24 March 2017
