One of tennis' brightest rising stars, Nick Kyrgios, was born on the 27th of April 1995, and turns 26 today!
He was born in Canberra, Australia to Greek father, Giorgos and Malay mother, Norlaila.
In his teens, Kyrgios played basketball before deciding to focus solely on tennis when he was 14 years old.
He is currently ranked No. 56 in the world in men’s singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and is the third highest-ranked Australian in the ATP rankings.
The tennis star has won six ATP titles and has reached nine ATP finals, including the 2017 Cincinnati Masters.
In his junior career, Kyrgios won the boys’ singles event at the 2013 Australian Open and the boys’ doubles event at the 2013 Wimbledon Championships.
During his professional career, Kyrgios reached the quarterfinals of the 2014 Wimbledon Championships—upsetting then world no. 1 Rafael Nadal and world no. 13 Richard Gasquet en route—and the quarterfinals of the 2015 Australian Open.
He is only the third player, after Dominik Hrbatý and fellow Australian Lleyton Hewitt, to have beaten Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic the first time he played each of them.
Kyrgios has a controversial reputation due to his on-court antics, but he also has a heart full of gold.
Last year he took to the streets of Canberra, to deliver food to anyone going hungry during the pandemic.
And before that, during the Australian summer of tennis (in 2020), he pledged to donate $200 for every ace he hit and it was his idea of the ‘Rally for Relief’ that helped raise millions of dollars for those impacted by the devastating bushfires.
In 2017 he also launched the NK Foundation, which strives to “increase access to, and provide sport facilities to underprivileged and disadvantaged youths.”
Earlier this month, Kyrgios confirmed he intends to play the US Open this year.
The young tennis star took almost all of 2020 off due to the coronavirus pandemic and the demands of quarantine attached to international travel.
However, he made a memorable comeback at the 2021 Australian Open, playing his part in two brilliant matches (against Frederico Ferreira Silva and Ugo Humbert) before losing to Dominic Thiem in the third round.
