Kyrgios sends warning to top 10 players ahead of Wimbledon

Kieran Francis

Kyrgios sends warning to top 10 players ahead of Wimbledon image

Nick Kyrgios believes he can beat any of the world's top 10 tennis players on his favoured grass surface at Wimbledon.

The Australian will open his campaign at the All England Lawn and Tennis Club on day two with a first round match against British wildcard Paul Jubb.

Kyrgios' preparations for Wimbledon have seen the 27-year-old show top form, achieving semi-final appearances on grass in Stuttgart and Halle, before he was forced to pull out of Mallorca last week with an abdominal issue.

Ahead of his first match at the third Grand Slam of the year, Kyrgios was confident against the world's best players, having beaten the likes of Stefanos Tsitsipas, Casper Ruud and Andrey Rublev in 2022.

Across his career, Kyrgios has beaten top 10 players on 24 occasions, featuring some famous wins against Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.

"I've played top-10 players in the world this year and made them look pretty ordinary," Kyrgios said, who will be unseeded at this year's tournament.

"Look, I know where my game's at. I know if I'm feeling confident, I'm playing well, I'm able to just light it up kind of whenever I want.

"Obviously from a load standpoint, I played a lot of tennis.

"I don't think anyone kind of expected that. Probably the only player that's going to have a two-month break in the middle of the year, then come back for the grass.

"I've played a lot of matches, had some great results, beaten some really good players. I'm just happy where my level's at.

"I've had probably some of the best preparation I've had for a while on the grass."

Kyrgios will go into his Wimbledon first round match with Jubb as hot favourite, with the 22-year-old Brit ranked 219th in the world.

However, Jubb has showed some solid form during the grass-court season so far at Queens, beating Australia's James Duckworth and USA's Steve Johnson, before taking a set off world no.26 Botic van de Zandschulp.

Kyrgios will be hoping for a comfortable match before a likely meeting against 28th-seeded Serbian Filip Krajinovic and then sixth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in the third round.

Kieran Francis

Kieran Francis Photo

Kieran Francis is a senior editor at The Sporting News based in Melbourne, Australia. He started at Sportal.com.au before being a part of the transition to Sporting News in 2015. Just prior to the 2018 World Cup, he was appointed chief editor of Goal.com in Australia. He has now returned to The Sporting News where his passions lay in football, AFL, poker and cricket - when he is not on holiday.