Nick Kyrgios has made a blazing start to his Wimbledon
campaign, advancing to the second round in just over an hour.
Kyrgios blasted past Argentine Diego Schwartzman 6-0 6-2 7-6
(8-6) in just 84 minutes to give Australia a flying start to the championships.
At one point, after taking the opening set in 17 minutes and
conjuring more break points in the first game of the second set, Kyrgios
threatened to emulate countryman Todd Woodbridge's triple bagel win over Johan
Ortegren in Wimbledon qualifying in 2001.
But the South American held serve to finally get on the
scoreboard before Kyrgios resumed his first-round cakewalk.
A quarter-finalist last year ranked 144th in the world,
Kyrgios is seeded 26th and rated by four-times champion John McEnroe as a title
smokey in 2015.
The 20-year-old next faces either Juan Monaco or Florian
Mayer on Wednesday after dispelling any doubts about his capacity to deliver
after splitting with his coach on the tournament eve.
Kyrgios at times toyed with Schwartzman, dazzling fans with
a deadly mix of deft touch and awesome firepower.
The two-time grand slam quarter-finalist took exception last
week to criticism of his game management, but he showed great composure not to
unravel after engaging in a dispute with the chair umpire and falling behind
4-2 in the third set.
Kyrgios told Mohamed Lahyani - the Swede who presided over
John Isner's epic 11-hour win over Nicolas Mahut in 2010 - "I'm not
playing" and demanded a rules official come to court two after an
unfavourable line call put him down double break point.
"No, no, no. That's not the rules. I will sit down here
and wait until whenever he comes," Kyrgios said, demanding a replay of the
point.
But he played on, dropped serve and then broke back
immediately before taking the match in a third-set tiebreaker.
"I came out strongly. I haven't played too much tennis
lately. I've been sick," Kyrgios said.
"But it's great to be back on the grass. I barely
missed a ball for the first two sets and I'm going to gain so much confidence
out of that third set. I had to dig deep."
Kyrgios said he'd been battling a sinus infection, but that
it was "under control now".
Kyrgios, Lleyton Hewitt, Thanasi Kokkinakis and Samantha
Stosur are among 11 Australians in action on Monday.
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