NICK Kyrgios will ignore the temptation of blindly chasing rankings points and instead embrace a “quality over quantity” approach ahead of the French Open and Wimbledon.
Increasingly viewed as the player most likely to threaten the dominance of Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal and Stan Wawrinka, Kyrgios will take the next three weeks off to build on a strong start to the season.
A semi-finalist at the rich Miami Open last week after victory in Marseilles in February, world No.20 Kyrgios will use the three-week block to prepare for next month’s French Open.
The youngest man inside the top 20, Kyrgios won’t play another tournament until Estoril from April 25.
After returning to the scene of what he regards as his greatest victory — success over 17-time major winner Federer — Kyrgios will then contest the Madrid and Rome Masters 1000 tournaments before taking another week off.
He will then tackle Roland Garros before shifting focus to his primary goal — the English grass court season, where he is already a feared commodity.
The 20-year-old has been added to a classy Queen’s Club field, where he shares to billing with world No.2 Murray, Nadal, Wawrinka and Canadian Milos Raonic.
After Queen’s, Kyrgios will take another week off to make final preparations for Wimbledon, where he announced himself to the world in spectacular fashion two years ago with a centre court demolition of then world No.1 Nadal.
Reinstated as Australian No.1 after overtaking Bernard Tomic with his deep Miami run, Kyrgios is widely regarded as a serious danger at Wimbledon because of his massive serve and vastly improved returning and mobility.
The Canberran proved in Miami that he is far from a one-trick serving pony, compensating for unusual inconsistency on his biggest weapon with classy returning.
Still without a permanent coach, Kyrgios is again likely to tap into Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt’s grass court expertise.
Hewitt won four Queen’s Club titles as well as the 2002 Wimbledon crown.
Kyrgios, world No.21 Tomic and world No.26 Sam Stosur are all likely to be seeded at the next two majors.
Daria Gavrilova, ranked 37th, is also in the mix.
