Nick Kyrgios was tipped as a future world number one by David Ferrer following their Western and Southern Open semi-final, but the Australian insists rankings do not matter to him.

Kyrgios, who eliminated impending number one Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals, beat Ferrer 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-4) to reach the final of an ATP Masters 1000 event for the first time in his career.

Ferrer said in the aftermath the 22-year-old will have plenty of chances to win majors and top the rankings if he approaches the sport with the right mentality.

But Kyrgios, who was suspended for tanking last year, expressed a lack of interest in pushing for such milestones, with personal development away from the court more of a priority.

"It's just hard for me to take the game seriously at times. If I'm number one or number 500, I'm just a tennis player," said Kyrgios, who takes on Grigor Dimitrov on Sunday.

"I don't really want to be remembered as an unbelievable tennis player. I would rather be remembered as someone who was kind to people and stuff like that.

"There are other things that are more important to me than tennis. It's just a game. There's worse things happening in the world right now than me losing. That's part of the reason I can't take it so seriously.

"I've had family members that have passed away and I didn't get to see them enough because of tennis and I guess that could be a reason why I can't really give myself fully to the game as well."