Australian Open 2016 just another tennis tournament: Nick Kyrgios

Tennis bad boy Nick Kyrgios is not stressing out on a successful Australian Open campaign this year amid an Aussie crowd who expects best finishes from their home-soil players.

Kyrgios, who is on a mission to equal his quarterfinal finish last year in Melbourne, revealed he has gained plenty of confidence in his game and feels more comfortable playing in front of fans this season. However, the 20-year-old does not seem to be fretting about the pressure on Aussie players to earn a spot in the later rounds of the tournament.

“There is a little bit more expectation here, the crowd expects any Aussie to play best tennis, but honestly it's just another tournament,” Kyrgios said, reports Tennis World USA. “If you lose first round, there's 50, 60 other events you can play in the year, perform, turn that bad week into a good week.”

Kyrgios had a bad season last year, highlighted by an on-court sledge directed at Swiss Stan Wawrinka at the Montreal Masters. The controversy earned Kyrgios a one-month suspended ban from ATP-sanctioned tournaments, which takes effect if the Aussie incurs a total of $5,000 in fines.

Kyrgios opens his 2016 Australian Open campaign against Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta, whom the Aussie teen defeated last year at the ATP Estoril in Portugal. Busta, the youngest of 15 Spaniards in the main draw, is also not short of confidence heading into the first round of the first Grand Slam event of the year, saying that he has more possibilities of winning a tennis match against Kyrgios than playing Swiss great Roger Federer.

“It will be a tough match but I’m ready for a fight,” Carreno Busta said, reports The Guardian. “I know he’s a really good player, but why can’t I win? I am playing good, I am feeling good and I will fight a lot.”

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