ATP: The Next Potential Test for Nick Kyrgios

Nick Kyrgios has been pausing during the last few weeks – in Indian Wells, the Australian is trying to follow up on his performance in Cincinnati last summer.

Nick Kyrgios made himself scarce after his three set defeat in the Davis Cup in Brisbane against Alexander Zverev. The Australian number one played the match through to the bitter end, after which it was announced that he was not quite fit. After that break for Kyrgios, the start in Delray Beach was cancelled, and the man from Canberra did not take part in the 500cc tournaments in Acapulco or Dubai. The return to Indian Wells is planned for this week, Kyrgios will start into the race in a field that has to give up industry leaders such as Rafael Nadal and Stan Wawrinka as number 17, three places better than his current world rankings position.

Kyrgios started the year 2018 strongly, won the tournament in Brisbane and defeated Grigor Dimitrov for the first time in the preliminary round. Just a few days later, the local hero lost just under four sets in the last sixteen of the Australian Open. It was this match that gave the 22-year-old’s supporters reason to hope that Kyrgios will turn his great potential into great successes this season.

Wally Masur, former Australian Davis Cup captain and familiar with Nick Kyrgios? development for many years, believes in his former protégé “I think Nick will have a great year,”Masur said,”He’s a phenomenal talent. When we’re talking about the next generation of players, Nick has the best potential for me.”

Like all the seeded players, Kyrgios enjoys a walk-through in the first round of Indian Wells, with either Steve Johnson or Daniil Medvedev at the start. Then Pablo Carreno Busta could wait, the finalist of Acapulco with Kevin Anderson in the round of sixteen. The best-of-three format on the regular ATP tour certainly suits Kyrgios, with the majors having a much greater chance of losing concentration. However, Kyrgios still has most of his career ahead of him, and time is playing for the Australian. Wally Masur knows that too.

“It’s a journey for every player, even Andy Murray or Novak Djokovic didn’t automatically become the biggest players of our time, they have worked their way there. They also took their time to acclimatise and maximise their potential to become Grand Slam champions. And they’ve done a pretty good job of it over the last decade.”

Last year, Nick Kyrgios left a scent mark on the 1,000 mark: he reached the final in Cincinnati, but had no chance against Grigor Dimitrov.

Here is the men’s single panel in Indian Wells