‘Parttimer’ Kyrgios returns with win
WIMBLEDON, England — Nick Kyrgios was back on the scene at Wimbledon, offering his inimitable brand of showmanship and shotmaking, with tennis by turns exhilarating and exasperating.
Even if he hadn’t played on tour 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 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 64, 46, 36, 61, 97 on Wednesday in a match suspended at 3all in the last set a night earlier because of an 11 p.m. curfew.
“Not bad for a parttime player,” 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 firstround 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 19time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic — who made only six unforced errors and beat twotime major finalist Kevin Anderson 63, 63, 63 — 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, some were just making their way into the second: Jelena Ostapenko, Victoria Azarenka, Marin Cilic, Felix AugerAliassime and Taylor Fritz, among them.
“I’m obviously tired. I fell over a couple of times. Pretty slick courts,” said Murray, a twotime Wimbledon winner who’s had two hip operations and came back to beat qualifier Oscar Otte 63, 46, 46, 64, 62. “But considering everything, I feel all right. I feel good.”
Sofia Kenin, the Australian Open champion and French Open runnerup in 2020, and 41yearold 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 highestranked 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 during her match Tuesday and couldn’t continue.