Rafael Nadal believes Nick Kyrgios can be world No. 1.
The 13th-ranked Kyrgios appreciates the compliment, but isn’t exactly inspired by a quest for the top spot.
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"Becoming No. 1 doesn't really excite me at all, to be honest. It's not something I wish that I was,” Kyrgios told Rohit Brijnath in an interview with The Straits Times. “Whether I am 13 in the world, 1 in the world, 20 in the world, doesn't really bother me at all. It's just tennis."
The 21-year-old Kyrgios, who won three ATP titles in 2016 before incurring an eight-week suspension for tanking a 48-minute loss to Mischa Zverev in Shanghai, told Fox Sports he's aiming to crack the Top 10 in 2017.
“It's been a rollercoaster, we had a lot of highs, a lot of lows," Kyrgios told Fox Sports. "But ultimately, my ranking jumped from about 30 to 13, so that's a successful year. I've got a couple of guys in my team who hopefully can help me push for that top 10 spot next year.”
Kyrgios helped lead the Singapore Slammers to their second straight IPTL title with a victory over the Indian Aces in the final, concluding a season that began with Kyrgios partnering Daria Gavrilova to lead Australia to the Hopman Cup. In retrospect, Kyrgios said he’s gained some perspective after a sometime turbulent season.
"At the end of the day my perspective on the whole thing is very good,” Kyrgios said. “I don't really take myself too seriously. At the end of the day we're just playing tennis. It doesn't really matter. There are issues and other things in the world that I think about. It's just tennis, it's so small in the scheme of things."
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