Nick Kyrgios has a message for his young fans: “It can be done”.
Kyrgios is among the world’s most lethal players in world tennis and boasts some of the most blinding power on tour.
He generates freakish ball speed from his groundstrokes on both the forehands and backhand sides, covers the court as well as some of the world’s best, and few are blessed with a more damaging serve.
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But the finely chiselled, 193cm elite athlete wasn’t always the picture of athleticism that saw him get within two sets of a Wimbledon championship in 2022.
The 28-year-old was once a chubby youngster, unrecognisable from the ripped figure he cuts today.
Sharing a picture of himself from some two decades ago, where Kyrgios looks anything but a future world No.13 tennis player, the 2022 Australian Open men’s doubles champion had a message for the younger generation.
“This one is for all the youngins out there….. IT CAN BE DONE!” he said in a post that also included some snaps of his fully developed form.
It’s not the first time Kyrgios has shared where he has come from, famously posting a photo of himself — again unrecognisable — holding a tennis racquet as a tubby youngster.
That post came just two days before his maiden and only appearance in a major final at the All England Club in 2022, where he lost to Novak Djokovic.
“Wimbledeon finals,” Kyrgios captioned the post, alongside a laughing emoji.
Kyrgios will for the second straight year be on the sidelines for his home slam when the Australian Open starts later this week, still recovering from a wrist complaint which, compounded with knee surgery last year, kept him out of all competitive tennis in 2023 barring one match.
But the tennis star will dip his toe into commentary during the tournament instead.
The injured Aussie will join European broadcaster Eurosport to go into lounge rooms across 50 different markets overseas when the first major tournament of the year starts on January 14.
It will be Kyrgios’ second foray into the commentary box in the past three months, having appeared on screens during the ATP Finals last November where he impressed with his rare insight into the modern game and its current stars.
Interestingly, the outspoken Aussie has been added to a Eurosport commentary team that also includes German tennis legend Boris Becker, with whom Kyrgios has had a running public feud for years.
Most recently, the pair had a heated back-and-forth on social media where Kyrgios claimed Becker’s generation was substandard to the current one that has included Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.