Australian teen sensation Nick Kyrgios reckons he can send world number one Rafael Nadal tumbling out of Wimbledon on Monday - as long as he steers clear of Canadian rapper Drake. The world number 144, making his debut at the All England Club, is relishing the prospect of taking on the Spanish two-time champion and says he has nothing to lose in the battle for a place in the quarter-finals.
The 19-year-old is widely tipped as a star of the future and the chance to announce himself in style at Wimbledon has got the wildcard buzzing with excitement.
"I'm overwhelmed with happiness," he said. "I never thought that I would be seeing Nadal in my fourth round Wimbledon in my 19th year. I thought it would take years and years of work to finally have an opportunity like that."
The shot at the 14-time Grand Slam champion should provide a measure of his progress.
"To think that it's going to happen is daunting, but so exciting, as well," he said.
"I have nothing to lose. Anything is possible. I'm just going to go out there and play my game. I think that's definitely enough to be competitive."
And the Canberra-born player reckons he can cause an upset. Asked if he thought he could beat Nadal, he simply said: "Yeah".
The youngest player left in the men's draw listens to music when he walks on court to get him in the mood, but said he might avoid playing some Drake before facing Nadal.
Kyrgios made to the fourth round after beating Jiri Vesily, his fellow former junior world number one, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-2 on Saturday.
Kyrgios lost the first set against the Greek and blamed it on rapper's Drake's beats and rhymes.
"I came out really flat, so hopefully I won't listen to that again! It was actually Drake. Didn't do the job for me," he said.
Throughout his run, Kyrgios has been roared on by Aussie "fanatics", a noisy, colourful presence courtside whenever Australian players are in action at Wimbledon.
"They have been there every match going nuts. They give me a lot energy and spark," he said.
And Kyrgios claimed he was relishing the prospect of playing Nadal in front of 11,000 people on Court One, or 15,000 on Centre Court.
"Making my fourth round at a Grand Slam and the opportunity to play Rafa hopefully on Centre Court, it's an opportunity I'm just going to embrace," he said.
"I thrive on those opportunities to play in front of a big crowd. I love it. I will be interacting a bit with them. It's going to be really exciting. The crowds here are great. The fanatics are going to be going absolutely berserk. That will be a lot of fun."
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