Nick Kyrgios has called time on his turbulent 2015
season, pulling out of next week's Paris Masters with an arm injury.
"Another year in the books. #SeasonOver
#Thanks," Kyrgios tweeted to his more than 160,000 followers.
While he likely lost some Twitter fans in a 2015
campaign dogged by controversy, Kyrgios improved his ranking by 22 spots after
picking up wins over Swiss aces Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka and reaching a
grand slam quarter-final for the second consecutive year.
His run to the last eight at Melbourne Park and charge
to the final on clay in Estoril were the highlights of a rollercoaster season.
The 20-year-old's clashes with officialdom at
Wimbledon and unsavoury sledging of Wawrinka in Montreal largely overshadowed
any on-court inroads he made after climbing from 52nd in the rankings to 30th.
After taking part in the Indian Premier Tennis League
next month, Kyrgios will open his 2016 season at the Hopman Cup exhibition
event in Perth in early January.
He faces a battle to snare a top-32 seeding for the
Australian Open and will likely miss out unless he contests - and wins a couple
of matches - at ATP events in either Chennai, Doha or Brisbane.
Whenever he does return to the ATP Tour, Kyrgios still
has the spectre of a one-month ban hanging over his head after effectively
being placed on probation in August for his verbal taunting of French Open
champion Wawrinka.
Fined $US1500 for an audible obscenity in Shanghai,
Kyrgios will trigger a 28-day ban if he accrues any more fines totalling
$US3500 before February 24.
But he is in no danger of being rubbed out of the
Australian Open, which is governed by Tennis Australia and the ITF - not the
ATP.
Newly appointed Australian Davis Cup captain Lleyton
Hewitt is backing the polarising youngster to win back fans and challenge for
grand slam slam glory.
"When I came on (to the tour), I didn't always
have the best image out there either," Hewitt said this week.
"So it's about dealing with that and learning
from the mistakes that you've made over time and becoming not only a better
person off the court but also a better tennis player.
"Nick, I think, is really finding himself at the
moment but he has massive up side and I think with the right people around him
he can really improve leaps and bounds in the next year or two and hopefully
hold up a grand slam trophy."
NICK KYRGIOS'S 2015 SEASON SNAPSHOT
Age: 20
Ranking 30
Career-high ranking: 25 (June 2015)
2014 year-end ranking: 52
Tournaments: 17
Titles: 0
Best results: finalist Estoril; semi-finalist Kuala
Lumpur; quarter-finalist Australian Open
Top-10 wins: Roger Federer (Madrid), Milos Raonic
(Wimbledon), Stan Wawrinka (Montreal)
2015 win-loss record: 24-18
2015 grand slam win-loss record: 9-4
2015 grand slam results: Australian Open
quarter-finals, 3rd rd French Open, 4th rd Wimbledon, 1st rd US Open
2015 Davis Cup record: 0-1
2015 prize money: $US954,914 ($A1.35 million)
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