Kyrgios stages a successful return to court
WIMBLEDON, England — Nick Kyrgios was back on the scene at Wimbledon, offering his inimitable brand of showmanship and shot-making, with tennis by turns exhilarating and exasperating.
Even if he hadn’t played on tour at all since February, even if he came in with a grand total of 15 matches of competition over the past 18 months, Kyrgios showed he still can deliver the goods when he puts his mind to it.
Just a handful of days after finishing the lengthy trek from the comforts of home in Canberra, Australia, to the grass courts of the All England Club — leaving the carefully calibrated practice and prep to others — Kyrgios made quite a return, edging No. 21 seed Ugo Humbert 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 9-7 on Wednesday in a match suspended at 3-all in the last set a night earlier because of an 11 p.m. local curfew.
“Not bad for a part-time player,” a smiling Kyrgios told the crowd at No. 1 Court, letting them know his plans for the rest of the day included playing video games with his girlfriend at the tournament’s “bubble” hotel.
His was one of more than two dozen first-round contests that wound up finishing on Day 3 after rain Monday and Tuesday scrambled the schedule and contributed to the slickness of the courts that left some players sliding and stumbling.
So while 19-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic — who made only six unforced errors and beat two-time major finalist Kevin Anderson 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 — and others such as Andy Murray, Frances Tiafoe, Sebastian Korda, Fabio Fognini, Aryna Sabalenka, Garbine Muguruza, Sloane Stephens and Iga Swiatek reached the third round on a chilly, overcast and busy day, some were just making their way into the second: Jelena Ostapenko, Victoria Azarenka, Marin Cilic, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Taylor Fritz, among them.
Sofia Kenin, the Australian Open champion in 2020, and 41-year-old Venus Williams, who won five of her seven major championships at Wimbledon, lost in the second round. Kenin’s departure means seven of the 11 highest-ranked women are now missing from the bracket, including defending champion Simona Halep and Naomi Osaka — who both withdrew before the tournament — and Serena Williams, who injured her right leg when she slipped during her match Tuesday and couldn’t continue.