After his stunning defeat of Rafa Nadal at Wmbledon in 2014, Nick Kyrgios was the apple in the eye of the tennis world.
Since then the Australian prodigy has built a steady career for himself, making appearances in the quarter-finals of the Wimbledon Championships and Australian Open, while he is currently ranked No. 19 in the world.
However, the 21-year-old has garnered the reputation of being tennis' bad boy after failing to return serves in the 2015 Wimbledon Championship and sledging opponents, the most high profile of which was against Stan Warwinka where he claimed "(Thanasi) Kokkinakis banged your girlfriend, sorry to tell you that mate."
Despite his obvious natural ability, see below, Kyrgios has announced his intention to retire from the game young when speaking with Matt Dickinson of The Times.
“There is zero chance that Nick Kyrgios will be playing tennis when he’s 30-years-old,” Kyrgios told the London newspaper.
“There’s absolutely no chance. I don’t know how long my career will be but God help me if I am playing tennis at 30. There are so many more things to this world than tennis for me. Not tennis at 30. Please.”
“I have seen a couple (sports psychologists),” he said.
“But I can’t really focus for long enough. I can’t really take it seriously. They are trying to find what fuels you, motivates you. But it’s tough. One week I am motivated, one week I am not. So I walked away. Not my thing.
“Sometimes I get too creative when I should keep it simple. One of my coaches always used to say, ‘When people watch you, you don’t have to try and go for that extra shot’.
“It keeps me entertained and wanting to play.”
Here's hoping he manages to stick around and produce more spectacular plays like this one against Nadal in 2014.
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