Nick Kyrgios has taken out the Newcombe Medal as Australia’s most outstanding tennis player of year.
The 19-year-old excitement machine edged out veteran grand slam champions Lleyton Hewitt and Samantha Stosur and tennis super-mum Casey Dellacqua to become the youngest recipient of the prestigious award.
Kyrgios was acclaimed at a gala ceremony at Melbourne’s Crown Palladium on Monday night.
Kyrgios stunned the sporting world with his earth-moving fourth-round win over Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon, in doing so becoming the first teenager since Nadal in 2005 to topple a world number one at a grand slam.
He also nervelessly and spectacularly saved nine match points against highly-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet en route to the quarter-finals at the All England Club.
But proving his Wimbledon heroics no fluke, the 2013 Australian Open junior champion delivered a stylish encore in New York, blitzing two-times US Open semi-finalist Mikhail Youzhny to reach the last 32 before running out of steam against wily Spaniard Tommy Robredo.
Kyrgios called an end to his exhausting 2014 campaign shortly after helping guide Australia back into the Davis Cup World Group.
After starting the season ranked 183rd in the world, he finished at number 52 – just two spots below Hewitt, the year-end men’s Australian number one once again at almost 34.
Hewitt, like Stosur and Dellacqua, also mounted a strong case for Newcombe Medal honours.
The former world number one rolled back the years to secure two ATP titles for the first time in a decade, conquering Roger Federer in the Brisbane International final and reigning in singles and doubles on the grass courts of Newport.
Source: AAP