Kyrgios banishes bad Shanghai memories

Nick Kyrgios said he wanted to make up for his notorious meltdown last year in Shanghai as he beat Mischa Zverev in the second round of the China Open on Wednesday.

A year ago the supremely talented but combustible Kyrgios was suspended for his petulant behaviour at the Shanghai Masters, where he swore and argued with the crowd and appeared to give away points in caving in to the German.

The enigmatic Australian, seeded eighth on Beijing’s outdoor hard courts this year, smashed his racquet to the ground in anger when he lost the opening set on Wednesday.

That earned the world No 19 a warning from the umpire and raised the spectre of a year ago.

But the 22-year-old showed renewed vigor in the second set as errors began creeping into Zverev’s game.

World No 27 Zverev, the older brother of rising star Alexander, dropped serve in the first game of the second set and Kyrgios was never in trouble after that, winning 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.

During one changeover Krygios was so relaxed that he sat back on his chair, arms behind his head, and sang along with a pop hit being played over the stadium loudspeakers.

“Nothing really, just chilling out,” said Kyrgios when asked about his behavior.

Kyrgios said facing Zverev a year after Shanghai, and again in China, was the perfect opportunity to show how far he has come.

“Obviously didn’t have a great one last year, got suspended after that,” he said.

“I just wanted to go out there today and kind of redeem myself a little bit from last year,” he said.