Nick Kyrgios believes it is a “privilege” to be considered an Australian Open 2023 title contender.
Melbourne, Australia, 14 January 2023 | Leigh Rogers
Nick Kyrgios is happy to be considered a title favourite at Australian Open 2023.
βI think everyone wants to get to a position in their sport or their profession, be one of the best and have that expectation and pressure,β said the top-ranked Australian.
βItβs a privilege to go out there and feel that Australia wants me to win and to be one of the favourites.β
The 27-year-old is set to make his 10th consecutive main-draw appearance at his home Grand Slam.
βI walked in here at the Australian Open maybe eight, nine years ago as a wild card,β Kyrgios noted.
βNow to see how my career has unfolded, to get to a point where everyone kind of expects me to win and go far, itβs a good feeling.β
Kyrgiosβ best previous Australian Open result is a quarterfinal appearance in 2015. But after a career-best 2022 season, which saw him reach the Wimbledon singles final and win the Australian Open doubles title with Thanasi Kokkinakis, expectations are high.
As he prepares for a first-round clash with world No.98 Roman Safiullin, Kyrgios admits his favourite tag comes with βa lot of stressβ.
βI see it everywhere, on social media, everyone talking about it. βHow are you feeling about Australian Open? Youβre one of the favouritesβ,β said the AO 2013 boysβ singles champion.
βItβs hard to kind of just focus on what I need to do.β
The world No.21 has had a busy week too. On Thursday night he walked the red carpet at Netflixβs world premiere of Break Point, a documentary series he heavily features in.
He played Novak Djokovic in a charity practice match in front of a capacity Rod Laver Arena crowd on Friday night, before returning to the court today for the Australian Openβs Kids Tennis Day.
Looking forward to seeing plenty of this next week, @NickKyrgios π₯#GoAussies β’ #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/SNMBFNDSZM
β TennisAustralia (@TennisAustralia) January 13, 2023
βI mean, obviously itβs hard finding the balance,β Kyrgios said of managing his schedule in the lead-up to the first Grand Slam tournament of the season.
βLast night I look at the fact Iβm able to raise a quarter of a million dollars for charity, make Novak feel right at home at the Slam where heβs had the most success. All the people that are just there to see me have…
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