JOHANNESBURG: Controversial Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios has referred 2016 season as a `successful one` despite ending the year under a ban from the ATP Tour for his on-court misbehavior.
The 21-year-old said that although 2016 had a lot of ups and downs, it should still be counted as successful as he lifted his world ranking from 30 to 13.
“I did a lot of fun things. I got Australia back in the world group of the Davis Cup, won a couple of titles, so it's been a good year,” Sport24 quoted Kyrgios as saying.
Kyrgios clinched three titles this season, including a maiden ATP 500 series victory in Tokyo.
However, his season ended in October when he was slapped with a three-week ban from the ATP Tour for tanking and was later handed a two-month suspension by the ATP after a bizarre straight-sets loss at the Shanghai Masters.
Reflecting on the same, Kyrgios insisted that he is using the break to analyse his shortcomings and working on them.
“It's one way to look at (it), to get more time off with the people that you love, and I've been training as well. So it's set me up in good stead for 2017. It just gave me time to think about and analyse everything I've got to get better at.”