Nick Kyrgios crashes out from the top-50 for the first time in four years
12 months ago, Nick Kyrgios had been celebrating his first ATP title on the home soil in Brisbane, entering the top-20 again and playing well at the Australian Open as well before bowing out against Grigor Dimitrov in four thrilling sets. Instead of keeping his course towards the top-10, Nick was sidelined for more than three months due to a right elbow injury, missing Rotterdam, Delray Beach, Acapulco, Indian Wells, Estoril, Madrid, Rome and Roland Garros, losing to Alexander Zverev in Miami and Ivo Karlovic in Houston in the only events he played before the grass season.
Keeping his ranking in the top-25, Nick reached the semi-final in Stuttgart where Roger Federer prevailed in a very tight match that could have gone to both sides, also losing in the semi-final of Queen's to Marin Cilic in two tie breaks. Kei Nishikori proved to be too strong for Kyrgios in the third round of Wimbledon and Nick would play only seven tournaments by the end of the season, struggling with a hip injury as well and deciding to miss the rest of the season after giving Mirza Basic a walkover in the second round of Moscow in October.
Finishing the year with 25 wins and many critical moments on the court when we saw absolutely no effort from him, Nick barely trained in the offseason, spending the time at home and focusing on his foundation that helps kids who don't have a chance to embrace the sport they love. The start of the new year has not been that good for Kyrgios, suffering a spider bite just before the start of Brisbane and losing in the second round to Jeremy Chardy on Wednesday to miss the title defense and drop out from the top-50 for the first time since February 2015!
Speaking about another setback, Nick said he doesn't care about his ranking position and the fact he will travel to Melbourne unseeded, just wanting to focus on the practice and the match against his very next rival, whoever might that be. Kyrgios played great in the opening set against Chardy, rattling off all 25 points behind the first serve and taking the tie break 7-5 before he lost the ground, winning just nine points on the return in sets two and three and suffering three breaks to end his run in the second round. The 23-year-old Aussie was ranked 13th in the world back in 2016 when he won three ATP titles but he has been struggling with the motivation and injuries over the last couple of seasons, unable to fulfill his potential and get where he should be with his immense talent.
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2QgEIMN
No comments