Rod Laver expects 22-year-old to replace Nadal and Federer to become 'best player in the world'

Rod Laver believes Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal's dominance on the stage will be ended by the advent of Nick Kyrgios, who has all the necessary skills to become the next big thing.

The 22-year-old was knocked out of the round of 16 at the Australian Open by number three seed Grigor Dimitrov but, showed enough promise to warrant such a prediction from one of the all time greats.

Kyrgios put in an impressive performance in the round of 32 tie, beating France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga but, failed to get the better of number three seed Dimitrov, who made easy work of the game. The fact that he has also beaten the likes of Nadal, Federer and Novak Djokovic in his career adds more credibility to Laver's prediction.

The Australian has beaten Federer in a ATP 1000 Masters event in Spain on clay in 2015 while also beating Nadal on two occasions in his career thus far.

Laver revealed that the youngster has all the credentials to be the best player in the world as the "Big 4" which include Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Andy Murray, won't be around for much longer.

"I think, you know, Nick Kyrgios could be the best player in the world," Laver told Fairfax Media, as quoted by the Express. "He has the markings of all of it. So many other people have said the same thing. What's he done? He's beaten Nadal, he's beaten Federer, darn near all of them, at their best.

"I think his mental approach has changed – winning the Brisbane tournament," Laver added. "Nick, I think, is ready to get involved. Beating [Jo-Wilfried] Tsonga in Melbourne here is a great start. I just believe that he's ready to sort of do something."

Meanwhile, Federer won his 20th Grand Slam title at the Australian Open, beating Marin Cilic in an engrossing contest, which lasted five sets.

Federer has now won three of the last five majors and victory in Melbourne was the sixth Australian Open victory of his career. The 36-year-old becomes only the fourth player after Margaret Court, Serena Williams and Steffi Graf to win 20 or more major singles titles.