Nick Kyrgios approaches clay-season with quality-over-quantity mentality

Nick Kyrgios will be heading into the clay-season with a mentality of winning important matches instead of chasing ranking points to boost his place at the ATP’s leaderboard.

Kyrgios broke into the ATP’s top 20 after an impressive run at the recently-concluded Miami Open that was halted by Kei Nishikori in the semifinal round. From being the world No. 42 in February, the Aussie tennis bad boy continued to climb the ATP rankings and now sits at the No. 20, replacing Bernard Tomic, who has held the position for three weeks.

But despite the success of being the youngest man inside the top 20, Kyrgios seem to be focusing on quality tournaments as implied by the Canberran’s schedule this season. After the Miami Open, Kyrgios won’t play another tournament until the Millennium Estoril Open, where he plays against the likes of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gilles Simon.

Kyrgios, who won his maiden ATP title at the Open 13 in Marseille, will next head to Madrid and Rome in May to play at both ATP 1000 Masters tournament before taking another week off to compete at Roland Garros. Before Wimbledon, he is scheduled to play at the Aegon Championships at the Queen's Club.

"Grass courts are my favourite surface," Kyrgios said, reports the BBC. "The conditions are perfect, all the Australians have played well there over the years and I'm pumped to be coming back."

After a remarkable start to the season, many believe Kyrgios is capable of playing at a high level following his convincing wins over Canada’s Milos Raonic at the Miami Open, where the Aussie teen did not drop a set until his semifinal defeat. However, Kyrgios’ success may still rely on how he could fully ulitise his talents in matches, which has been certainly the case for him, so far.