There have been several times in his career when Nick Kyrgios has been guilty of not giving his best but at the Australian Open yesterday, he was simply outplayed by a better player. His 6-4, 7-6, 6-4 defeat by Milos Raonic, the 16th seed, gave him his earliest exit from his home grand slam and means he will fall further down the rankings to the high 60s. Having said he was “in a good place” on the eve of the tournament, the 23-year-old now faces a battle over the coming months to get himself back toward the top of the game.
Raonic hit 30 aces and a hot day on serve throughout, dropping just six points on his first serve. He did not allow Kyrgios a single break point and when he had his chances on the Australian’s serve, he took enough of them to carve out a convincing victory.
Kyrgios had his right knee taped at the end of the first set, an injury he has been carrying for the past few weeks. “I’m trying my nuts off and my knee hurts,” he said at one stage during the match. “It hurts to walk, it hurts to rock on my serve. I’ve taken four tablets and they’re not working.”
However, Kyrgios did not use the injury as an excuse. “I don’t think that was at all the reason I lost today” he said. “He played unbelievable. Unbelievable serving. Never seen serving like that in my life. I’ve never been a part of it. I was just watching it literally going side to side. I was trying to mix up where I was standing, trying to move before, during, like trying to do anything.
“He was in such a good rhythm on serve, I couldn’t do anything. He was way too good tonight. Every time I returned, he served and volleyed. He volleyed unbelievable. He was so composed on big points, he made returns, jag returns on big points on my serve. He was way too good for me tonight.”
Kyrgios said he would have beaten 75 percent of the draw on that form. “I think there are players that are much better than I am,” he said. “Obviously guys like Roger [Federer] can neutralise big servers so easy with the chip return, which I don’t have. But [I] would have beaten a lot of players, for sure.”
Kyrgios said he would be available for Davis Cup selection, playing down suggestions that he did not want to play under Australia captain Lleyton Hewitt. “Not really,” he said, when asked if there was a rift. Bernard Tomic claimed on Tuesday that “no one liked Hewitt” but Kyrgios said he had not even seen his comments. “I don’t have a big deal with anything,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to play Davis Cup. I love Davis Cup. If I don’t play, I don’t play. I’m available. That’s all I got to say.”
With two more Australians making it through to round two, the total of 10 is the equal-best performance by home players in the past 16 years. Though Sam Stosur, Alya Tomljanovic, Daria Gavrilova and Destinee Aiava all lost and Thanasi Kokkinakis retired with a shoulder injury, teenager Alexei Popyrin and Alex Bolt both advanced with their first grand slam wins.
World No149 Popyrin, who trains at the Patrick Mouratoglou academy in France, hit 60 winners in his 7-5, 7-6, 6-4 win over Mischa Zverev of Germany while Bolt, ranked 155, upset American Jack Sock 4–6, 6–3, 6–2, 6–2 for his first grand slam win.”