This series will focus on several up-and-coming men who could begin to make a name for themselves on the ATP World Tour. The third player featured is Australian Nick Kyrgios.

Nick Kyrgios earned his first-ever ATP ranking point in April 2012, at the age of 16.  By the end of the year, he had defeated five top-1000 players in just eight tournaments, earned 15 points, and was ranked inside the top 850.

2013, though, was where Kyrgios showed the world that he is ready to compete. He lost in the first round of the Australian Open qualifying draw but responded by winning the Australian Open Juniors tournament. Soon he outstripped the need for juniors entirely.

Less than a month after the Australian Open, Kyrgios reached a Challenger semifinal in Adelaide, pushing his ranking into the top 600. He leaped into the top 400 when he won the Sydney Challenger at the end of February. His other highlights from 2013 include a straight-sets upset of Radek Stepanek at Roland Garros, a Futures win in China, and a Challenger semifinal in Sacramento.

Kyrgios has made the meteoric rise up the rankings that was once indicative of future greatness. He is in the top 200 less than two years after his first official tournament, the sort of career arc that has nearly disappeared in this generation of tennis players. That, frankly, puts him in a class with some of the top players in history and on tour now.

But becoming a top player is not just about potential. For those who have watched him, Kyrgios is showing that his potential is nearly unlimited. The next challenge—the one that will determine how high his career can go—will be how he can adjust to facing a caliber of player against whom he has never competed before.

Plenty of top players hit a ceiling when they begin to face elite competition. An extreme example is Ernests Gulbis, who has all the talent in the world but could never get over that final hump when he reached the biggest stages. Gulbis burst into the top 50 but could never sustain success until recently, where he seems to be making a resurgence.

At the young age of 18, Kyrgios is expected to make a career-defining adjustment. He has received a wild card to begin the year at Brisbane. He is likely guaranteed a wild card into the Australian Open as well, although it has not yet been announced. At tournaments like those, the powerful young Aussie will be consistently facing a caliber of competition that can deal with his shots, which is a significant adjustment to make.

Unfortunately for Kyrgios, he may have to make this adjustment a little too quickly. Over half of his ranking points will fall off by May. If he cannot get his ranking into the top 100 in the next five months, he may be stuck back down on the Challenger Tour for a while.

Is it too much to expect Kyrgios to make himself into a top player so quickly? Absolutely. And could he become a top-10 player even if he does not make his real breakthrough for another two or three years? That is possible too.

But Kyrgios stands at a crossroads. If he can push into the top 30 quickly and sustain it, he could become a staple at the top of the ATP Tour for many years to come. This is an opportunity that most 18-year-olds do not have. Many are eagerly watching to see what he can do with it.