Australia’s Nick Kyrgios will kick-off his clay court campaign at next week’s Madrid Open in Spain.
The world No.17 recently withdrew from the Estoril Open in Portugal following the death of his grandfather. Instead, he returned back to Canberra to attend the funeral. Kyrgios hasn’t played a match since the Davis Cup in April when Australia defeated the United States.
“It’s no secret the Estoril has been a very special stop for me on the ATP World Tour, so this decision was a hard one but my family is very important to me and I need to be around my loved one at this time.” Kyrgios wrote about withdrawing from Estoril.
Kyrgios’ absence from the tour will end next week at the Caja Magica in Madrid. The 22-year-old reached the last eight at the Madrid Masters in 2016 before falling in three sets to Kei Nishikori. A year prior, he stunned Roger Federer in the second round during what was his tournament debut.
French Open chances
Former world No.1 and Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt recently tipped Kyrgios to ‘go deep’ at the upcoming French Open. The Australian’s first ATP final was on the clay at the 2015 Estoril Open, but he hasn’t progressed beyond the third round at Roland Garros.
“He can do well, especially with where his ranking’s at at the moment. “He’s going to be a nice seeding going into the French,” the Cup captain told the RSN Breakfast Club.
“You’ve always got to be wary of dangerous floaters at the French Open because there’s so many good claycourters, especially from Europe.
“So in some of those early rounds, he’s got to be wary and pay that respect to those opponents. But he could easily get through to the fourth round and the draw opens up and all of a sudden you’re deep into the second week.”
This season Kyrgios has reached three ATP Tour semi-finals in Marseille, Acapulco and Miami. Earlier this year he scored two consecutive wins over world No.2 Novak Djokovic within three weeks. Overall, he has won 16 out of 20 singles matches played in 2017.
