Top 5 ATP Players of 2022: Nick Kyrgios, Stefanos Tsitsipas share honorable mention status

Nick Kyrgios

Nick Kyrgios will often tell you that he is the main event at any tournament he plays, and never was that assertion more correct than in 2022.

Irritated as I was to see Aryna Sabalenka excluded from our editorial Top 5, I don’t know how one even begins to tell the story of this past season without repeated mentions of Nick’s name: from his Australian Open doubles revival with Thanasi Kokkinakis, to his three-set epic against Rafael Nadal at the BNP Paribas Open, to his unforgettable Wimbledon fortnight.

Nick Kyrgios is box office, and when he was at your stadium or on your TV screen, you tuned in— and not just for the antics and the one-liners. In 2022, Kyrgios put his tennis front and center: he wanted to remind his crew of haters—real or imagined—that what makes him interesting above all else is his ability to take the racquet out of almost any opponent’s hands.

Regardless of ranking, Kyrgios played up to extreme effect, notching major victories over Stefanos Tsitsipas at Wimbledon and world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev at the US Open en route to the finals and quarterfinals, respectively.

His run to a first Grand Slam final at SW19 consumed all aspects of the news cycle, from sports and to mental health to more unsavory updates regarding (as yet unsettled) domestic abuse allegations. But much as TIME’s Person of the Year is a neutral mantle, so too is TENNIS.com’s Top 5, and no Top 5 from 2022 would be complete without exhaustive explanation of Kyrgios’ significant contribution to the men’s game.

Perhaps this blurb, much like the Aussie’s own selective scheduling, will leave readers all the more amped to see what the now-No. 22—after starting the year ranked No. 93—will do next season. —David Kane

Stefanos Tsitsipas

On the subject of Kyrgios, he declared Tsitsipas was “soft” upon hearing the Greek had accused him of being a bully in the Wimbledon press room.

For Stefanos, his 2022 results were ultimately softened by more compelling storylines. The now 24-year-old amassed 61 wins to lead all players on the ATP Tour, and yet, it didn’t command enough weight to make our Top 5 list.

Tsitsipas impressed on his return from a right elbow injury when he reached a third Australian Open semifinal in four years. Red clay once again proved fruitful, as Tsitsipas successfully defended an ATP title for the first time in his career in Monte Carlo. He later fended off Grigor Dimitrov, Karen Khachanov, Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev in succession to contest the Rome final, and added another 1000-level runner-up finish on hard courts in Cincinnati by avenging his Melbourne defeat to Medvedev.

But for all the matches he won, Tstisipas left plenty to be desired on the stages that matter most. Twelve months after being within a set of lifting the French Open crown, Tsitsipas was sent packing in the fourth round by Holger Rune. As he did in 2021, Tsitsipas went a combined 2-2 across Wimbledon and the US Open, the latter involving a first-round exit to qualifier Daniel Elahi Galan that prompted the No. 4 seed to say, “I played like close to an amateur.”

Finishing the year at No. 4 in the rankings in successive seasons is hardly an amateur-hour accomplishment. Perhaps, for the man who declared Andrey Rublev beat him at the ATP Finals with the “few tools he has”, Tsitsipas will consider retooling certain areas himself for 2023—whether it be his return game (in 2022, he ranked No. 49 in return games won and No. 25 in break points converted) or the guiding voices around him. —Matt Fitzgerald