Lleyton Hewitt is tipping Nick Kyrgios to get a huge career boost from his maiden ATP tour title triumph in Marseille.
New Davis Cup captain Hewitt welcomed Kyrgios' breakthrough as a major positive for his team ahead of Australia's world group first round tie against the United States at Melbourne's Kooyong next month.
He wasn't surprised 20-year-old Kyrgios had cracked his first title, but loved the convincing way he achieved it and believed it also boded well for the Masters series events ahead leading into the French Open.
In consecutive matches Kyrgios beat top-10 players Richard Gasquet and Tomas Berdych then 2104 US Open champion Marin Cilic in Sunday's final.
"He got better as the tournament went on and played with a lot of confidence," Hewitt said.
"We all knew he was going to win a title, it was a matter of time but the way he did it and the guys he beat, especially from the quarter-finals on was very impressive.
"To beat the likes of Gasquet and Berdych, who have given him trouble in the past and to beat them convincingly; it's a massive stepping stone for his confidence."
Former world No.1 Hewitt, who has assumed a mentoring role with Kyrgios in the past few months, said the Canberra product could beat anyone if he served as well as he did in France.
Kyrgios wasn't broken in 47 service games and didn't lose a set.
"The way he serves, if he can go out and serve that way it's going to be tough for anybody to beat him on any surface.
"He was getting so many cheap points and he can actually open up on his return of serve and take it to his opponents a little bit more."
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