In a recent profile, 20-year-old Nick Kyrgios, one of tennis’s fastest rising stars, tells Paul Newman of the Independent that he doesn’t fancy tennis as much as he does basketball.
Read the full profile of Kyrgios in the U.K. Independent here
“I don’t really like the sport of tennis that much,” Kyrgios says in the article. “I don’t love it. It was crazy when I was 14. I was all for basketball and I made the decision to play tennis. I got pushed by my parents and to this day I can still say I don’t love the sport. It is just crazy how things go.”
At the age of 14, Kyrgios says he felt he could have had a career in basketball. Even today, he says he wonders about what might have been.
“I thought I was going to [have a career in basketball],” Kyrgios said. “I was trying to get there when I was 14 and every time when I’m playing now I still think I can for some odd reason, even though I’m playing a completely different sport. That’s just the way it is and unfortunately I think my basketball career has come to an end.”
Basketball or no basketball, Kyrgios will try to replicate his breakout success of 2014 at Wimbledon, when he saved nine match points against Richard Gasquet in the second round then shocked Rafael Nadal in the round of 16 to reach his first career quarterfinal at a major, by opening his tournament with Diego Schwartzman of Argentina. He could face Milos Raonic, the man that ended his run at Wimbledon last year, in the third round.
Whether he likes it or not, Kyrgios knows he’s one of the most talented youngsters in tennis at the moment. He’s the youngest seeded player at Wimbledon this year and has been tabbed by many as a future Slam winner, but teenagers Borna Coric, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Hyeon Chung and Alexander Zverev are all pining away for the chance to overtake him.
Despite his conflicted personal feelings for the sport he plays, Kyrgios isn’t lost on the fact that he plays alongside some of the greatest athletes in all the world. He respects the game and those special players who've made this era so remarkable. He told Newman that he admires Roger Federer, the man he upset last month in Madrid, the most of all of them.
“Week in, week out, he’s such a great role model on and off the court,” Kyrgios said. “He’s always doing things around tournaments, trying to help out, trying to promote it. He’s doing everything. I played an unbelievable match against him in Madrid. Then he shows up again the next week and wins. He’s so good at just being able to do it week in and week out.”