BOURCHIER OFF TO RUSSIA AFTER TESTING KYRGIOS
TASMANIAN tennis ace Harry Bourchier will head to Russia next month with a confidence turbocharge after flashes of brilliance in his loss to Australian wild child Nick Kyrgios at the Murray River Open in Melbourne on Wednesday night.
Bourchier went down 6-2 7-6 (9) and watched as Kyrgios had a meltdown, refusing to play after a dubious time violation call in the second set tiebreaker of their Australian Open warm-up event.
The 25-year-old Tasmanian turned spectator as the drama unfolded, with Kyrgios serving at 40-30 and scores tied 5-5 in the second set.
Chair umpire Nacho Forcadell called him for a time violation, which had Kyrgios calling for the match referee and threatening to walk off.
“I just took a seat for the Kyrgios blowout, and I was just patient and being sure I was ready when we resumed play,” Bourchier said.
“I lost the next three points when we came back out but I regrouped pretty well, holding that 5-6 game to take it to a tie-breaker.
“It was the highest-level that I’ve played but it definitely wasn’t my best tennis.”
Bourchier got into his first ATP tournament after another Australian, Bernard Tomic, was an 11th hour withdrawal with a knee complaint.
In the opening round he beat Marc Polmans, a South Africa-born Victorian, 6-4 6-4 on Margaret Court Arena.
“I took a lot of confidence out of my first round win over Marc and to do it on that stage was really good,” he said.
“To do what I did in the second set against Nick also gave me a lot of confidence.”
Bourchier was tired and sore after the Kyrgios match, having gone from his singles match to a doubles contest, which he lost in a super tiebreaker.
“He broke me a few times in the first set and I wasn’t too pleased with that, but I knew I could match it with him in the second set and that’s what I did,” he said.
“I almost got over the line and got a third set.
“I took better care of my service games and put pressure on him on his service games and slowed him down a bit.
“That made the contest a bit closer and ramped the pressure up on him a bit more.
“I had him a bit rattled in the second set tie-breaker.”
The Kyrgios serve is like a tennis ball bazooka, with a top recorded speed of 230.1km/h at Wimbledon in 2019.
“It’s pretty tough,” Bourchier said.
“On the deuce court, I was guessing which way it was going to go — I had no idea where it was going.
“On the other side I had a bit more of an idea.
“The speed and accuracy are awesome. You’ve got to be ready for anything.”
Bourchier will now prepare for Challenger Series tournaments overseas.
“I’m looking to go to St Petersburg in March for a Challenger there,” he said.
“I can’t just sit on the couch for another year.
“I’m going to go for it. “The Challenger is still a ridiculous level. The top eight players are all top 100 so it’s a very good level.”
Bourchier‘s ranking is 270.