Kyrgios slaying Oz Open demons
Tennis ace calmer in stroll to third round
Melbourne – Nick Kyrgios’s new-found focus remained intact despite a night of distractions as the fiery home favourite outplayed Serbia’s Viktor Troicki to reach the Australian Open third round without conceding a set yesterday.
The 17th seed dealt with a bellowing fan, a malfunctioning umpire’s microphone and was distracted by a helicopter early in the second set but remained in firm control to claim an impressive 7-5 6-4 7-6 victory.
A year after was jeered by home fans after surrendering a two-set lead against Italian Andreas Seppi to crash out in the second round, the 22-year-old produced more evidence that a run deep into the second week is possible.
Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the 2008 Australian Open runner-up, is next up for Kyrgios who is shouldering his nation’s hopes of a first home men’s champion since Mark Edmondson in 1976.
The 31-year-old Troicki provided a useful gauge of Kyrgios’s form and fitness, but it was the Australian’s relative calmness in the face of adversity that stood out.
He was already a set in front when a fan decided to make a name for himself by standing up in the front row in the Hisense Arena and began bellowing while filming himself.
There was plenty of chuntering from Kyrgios but apart from “freaking out” after a late lapse when he dropped serve at 5-4 in the third, he stuck to his task.
“I think obviously it’s pretty easy to think, why me?” Kyrgios said of the odd incidents. “The guy in the crowd was crazy. I didn’t really know what was going on.” –