Nick Kyrgios

Nicholas Hilmy Kyrgios ( ; born 27 April 1995) is an Australian professional tennis player. In singles, Kyrgios' career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 13 was 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, and a Masters 1000 final at the 2017 Cincinnati Masters. In doubles, during his professional career, 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 and reaching the semifinals of the Miami Open, both times partnering Thanasi Kokkinakis. In singles, he has reached a singles major final at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships and three major quarterfinals (at 2014 Wimbledon, upsetting then-world No. 1 Rafael Nadal en route, the 2015 Australian Open and the 2022 US Open, upsetting then-world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev en route). Kyrgios is only the third player, after Dominik Hrbatý and Lleyton Hewitt, to have beaten each one of the Big Three (Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Nadal) the first time he played against them. Although Kyrgios has received praise for his perceived entertaining style of play, he is a controversial player whose matches have featured "epic displays of ranting, racquet-wrecking, and trash-talking". According to ''Tennishead'' magazine, he has received more fines for his temperamental on-court behaviour than any other player in ATP history. His actions have included swearing and smashing his racquet, as well as insults and verbal altercations with the crowd, with umpires, with his opponents and with his supporters. 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 ("Nill"). His father is a self-employed house painter, and his mother is a computer engineer. His mother was born in Malaysia as a member of the Selangor royal family, but she dropped her title as a princess when she moved to Australia in her twenties. His older sister Halimah works in dance and musical theatre and as a voice and performance coach based in Hong Kong.

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 Lyneham Tennis Centre redevelopment.

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.

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. Kyrgios then competed 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, he 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, he 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' 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 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 year 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 firstround 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 his first round match 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 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 record 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' 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 break into the top 100 of the ATP World Rankings for the first time in his career: i.e. Kyrgios' 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 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 teenage male 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.

He 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