Nick Kyrgios should consider overhauling his schedule in the final months of this year, in an attempt to halt his alarming slide down the world rankings, Todd Woodbridge says.
Kyrgios is facing the prospect of falling out of the top 100 after being bundled out of the US Open in the first round to continue an indifferent 2021.
Kyrgios is projected to drop from 86 to at least 94 in the rankings when they are next calculated, depending on other US Open results.
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The decline comes almost five years to the day since he reached a career high of No.13 in the world.
His loss to Roberto Bautista Agut in New York was his fourth straight defeat, after going down to Cameron Norrie in Atlanta, Mackenzie McDonald in Washington and Reilly Opelka in Toronto.
Across those four matches he won only a single set, with his US Open campaign ending in a 6-0 wipeout against Bautista Agut.
“Nick has really struggled just being back out on tour. I don’t know how he’s going to find his way out of it,” Woodbridge told Wide World of Sports.
“By all accounts he was practising well, and hard. He was putting in the effort on the practice court. But in a way, we can’t be surprised by his results.
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“You just can’t stay away from the tour for so long and pick it up when you return. You have to get the miles in the legs in matches, that’s what really counts. It’s about being able to perform under pressure, when it needs to be instinctive, not reactive.
“Even though he has such a great, dynamic game, you can tell he’s trying to react.”
Kyrgios was absent from the tour for 11 months after the pandemic struck in early 2020, not returning until the Australian summer at the start of this year.
That was followed by another four months out of the game between the Australian Open and Wimbledon.
“He has to tough it out as much as he can, play some tournaments to get a bit of a roll going,” Woodbridge explained.
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“Once he does, he’ll play great, but it’s hard to build confidence when you aren’t playing the matches, and he hasn’t played matches at a consistent level for two years.”
Kyrgios usually only plays a couple of tournaments after the US Open. He’s already confirmed he’ll play Laver Cup later this month, but Woodbridge says the European indoor season should also be an option.
“He’s the sort of player that can beat anybody. I suspect he’ll probably finish the year shortly, but the reality is he probably needs to play the rest of the year, because he’s had such a long break,” he said.
“It would be the first time he’d played the whole indoor season, and I know from experience those European indoor tournaments are tough, you’ve really got to grind it out.
“But if he wants to get his game back on track he’s going to have to dig deep.”
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