Australian-ace Nick Kyrgios secures wild card entry to Indian Wells, Miami Open

The Australian-ace will make his first appearance at the Indian Wells after clinching the Australian Open 2022 doubles titles.

Nick Kyrgios in a file photo (Twitter: @NickKyrgios)
By Samrat Chakraborty | Mar 6, 2022 | 2 Min Read follow icon Follow Us

Australian Open 2022 men’s doubles champion Nick Kyrgios will return to action for the first time after securing the Grand Slam title at the Indian Wells, slated to run from March 7 to 20. The Australian-ace has secured wild card entries for the Indian Wells and Miami Open, the tournaments have announced. His best performance at the Indian Wells Masters came in 2017, where he reached the quarter-finals after securing straight-set wins over Alexander Zverev and Novak Djokovic. He will also look to flourish at the Hard Rock Stadium in Florida which will host its own Masters 1000 event from March 23 to April 3.

His Australian Open 2017 clash against Swiss maestro Roger Federer was voted ATP Match of the Year. Federer, eventually, prevailed as the winner of the contest after a trio of tie-breaks was necessary to separate the pair in an all-time classic. 

The World No.42 doubles player had earlier made himself unavailable for Australia’s Davis Cup duties. 

READ MORE: Australian Open: Nick Kyrgios, Thanasi Kokkinakis set all-Aussie men’s doubles final

Nick Kyrgios faced tough two years: Australia Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt

Australia Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt, however, has backed Kyrgios in his endeavors and believes that he had a pretty rough two years. Kyrgios was the first-choice player for his country.

“The last two years have been tough for him, because Nick enjoys being home and he doesn’t like travelling all the time,” Hewitt was quoted as saying by news.com.au.

“It’s pretty tough being an Australian player, especially the last two years of the pandemic and not being able to come back every three, four, five weeks. So it wasn’t ideal for him.

“He’s fortunate, though, as you can see at the Australian summer, that he can pick up a racket and still go out there and compete with the best players with very limited matches under his belt

“Not many players can do that. For him to get to his absolute best, though, he does need to get those matches. I still think he’ll pick and choose where he wants to play, though.”

Hewitt, further, highlighted that Kyrgios has a different approach than most tennis players and doesn’t believe in the majors and winning the titles all the time. 

“In a lot of ways, he plays for different reasons than a lot of other guys. He’s not driven by the majors and winning the titles all the time,” he said.

“Sometimes, it’s for the entertainment and the enjoyment that he gets of going out there and playing. It’s up to him at the end of the day where that motivation comes from.”





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