Kyrgios set to practise
NICK Kyrgios has started the airlift of star players into the Brisbane International, flying into town from Argentina for a short series of practice sessions before Christmas.
Kyrgios, who is making his Brisbane main draw debut this summer, was at the Queensland Tennis Centre with his girlfriend Ajla Tomljanovic yesterday and will practise this morning.
Dual Wimbledon champion Andy Murray, the third seed for the Brisbane tournament which starts on Sunday week, is expected to be settled at an Australian training location before Christmas.
Kyrgios trained extensively in Melbourne earlier this month, including a four- day camp with Australian Davis Cup teammates before his trip to Argentina last week to play an exhibition against Juan Martin del Potro.
While some tennis traditionalists are turned off by his on- court excesses, Canberra’s world No. 21 would meet with strong support in his Brisbane debut, tournament director Cameron Pearson predicted.
“He has a lot of flair and people do want to see that on court,’’ Pearson said.
“The people in Brisbane got behind him and the Australian team when he played so well in Davis Cup here ( against the US in April).”
Tennis Australia performance director Wally Masur said Kyrgios, who will be seeded fourth, was laying the training base for a good Australian Open, where he has not made the second week since 2015.
“Thanasi Kokkinakis and the majority of the boys were there with Lleyton ( Hewitt) and coach Jason Stoltenberg in the Davis Cup camp,’’ Masur said.
“He was good and certainly was fully involved.
“If the hours of work are there, Nick is capable of anything, he’s so talented.’’
Masur said Bernard Tomic had been offered the chance to join in the Davis Cup team’s training, but declined.
The Courier- Mail reported on November 18 that Tomic had entered qualifying for both the Brisbane International and the Australian Open. Men’s qualifying starts at the QTC on Saturday week.
As a former top- 20 player now ranked No. 141, Tomic would ordinarily be a good case for one of TA’s wildcards for the Australian Open and one of two remaining wildcards for the men’s singles at the QTC.
But his unavailability for Davis Cup and Rio Olympics selection harm his claims at a time when TA is trying to build up a Davis Cup culture in the eyes of a teenager like Australian Open wildcard playoffs winner Alex de Minaur.