Nick Kyrgios started out his junior sporting days as a promising basketballer, but now the long-legged tennis star is preparing for his first junior French Open.
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''I've played Wimbledon and Australian Open juniors, they're the only grand slams I've played, so I'm pretty excited to get on the clay and experience the French Open,'' he said. ''It's probably my least preferred surface,'' he said of his clay court preparation, ''but I've got a lot fitter and stronger so I want to see how I go over there and see how much I've improved.''
The 17-year-old thinks he was six or seven years old when he had his first group lesson at the National Sports Centre in Lyneham, and soon he was playing every day.
''I started getting private lessons'' he said. ''I started doing all right in the tournaments, and from there I can't really remember much.''
The whirlwind ride has left the Watson local as Australia's top-ranked tennis player in his age group and training with the country's best at the Australian Institute of Sport.
But Kyrgios will be back at Lyneham in the coming weeks, training with his old coach as the other AIS players, including world No.1 junior Luke Saville, 18, head to Europe ahead of the Year 12 student, who has to fit his training around his studies.
Kyrgios is a successful product of the grassroots program that Tennis Australia is pushing with ambitious targets. Having made record profits at this year's Australian Open, the national body is flush with cash.
''Over the last five years the Australian Open has doubled in size commercially, so that's allowed us to come back and invest in the grassroots'' Tennis Australia chief Steve Wood said.
This week the ACT hosted the NSW primary school tennis championships. Riverina school children had the chance to play against Kyrgios and Saville.
''It's nice to come down here in our lunch break and give the little kids a hit,'' Saville said. ''Hopefully they can look up to us and be inspired a little bit.''