Brisbane International: Nick Kyrgios beats Matthew Ebden in Round of 16 clash
NICK Kyrgios survived his painful first battle at the Brisbane International on Wednesday but entered the ranks of Australian Open seeds wrestling with injury concerns.
UPDATED: NICK Kyrgios survived his painful first battle at the Brisbane International on Wednesday but entered the ranks of Australian Open seeds wrestling with injury concerns.
Kyrgios gamely finished his match and completed a tenacious 6-7 (3-7), 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 win over Australian No.2 Matt Ebden despite being restricted at times in his movement.
The Australian Davis Cup mainstay called the trainer to treat his left knee twice in the first set of his second-round win and again at the mandatory break between the first two sets at Pat Rafter Arena.
“I hurt it a couple of days ago. It was good enough to still play and play a tough competitor like Matt,’’ Kyrgios said.
“I was a bit rusty in the first match of the year. The Aussie summer is the best bunch of tournaments of the year and I’m happy to just get through.’’
Kyrgios, the third seed for the Brisbane singles, said he intended to play his second-round doubles match with Matt Reid later today, another stop on what is a long fitness road now to the business rounds of the Australian Open.
Asked if the injury could be managed through to playing at the Australian Open from January 15, Kyrgios said: “Of course, I’m sure I will be fine.
“I have been nursing it for the last day or two and didn’t really know what it was.
“I had some fluid in the back of my knee, the physio said. It only hurt me when I straightened my leg.
“It took me a while to get used to playing a match again. I had great memories from the Davis Cup here. The longer the match went, the looser I got.’’
If he has no adverse injury reaction to his 2hr12min match, Kyrgios will play Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov on Friday for a place in Saturday’s Brisbane International semi-finals.
As the first set progressed, the strapping around Kyrgios’s left knee grew more substantial and a source of concern for Brisbane organisers who had lost drawcards Rafael Nadal (knee), Andy Murray (hip), Garbine Muguruza (cramp) and Kei Nishikori (wrist) due to fitness worries.
The ATP tour’s social media staff claimed it was a knee problem, with one physio on Twitter suggesting it would be either a meniscus issue or related to his lower hamstring.
Kyrgios’s movement after serves become shorter and, evidently, creating greater discomfort and he often grimaced after pulling up from the last shot of a point.
Yet in the game in the third set in which he gained the first service break of the match he dashed from one corner to the other to nail a forehand winner.
Tournament staff said he had been seen icing the injury late on Tuesday after his doubles match.
Ebden, ranked No.76, was able to expose on some points Kyrgios’s apparent lack of acceleration, but the Canberra refused to go away and won the second set tiebreak with two forehand winners and a rolled forehand on his second set point.
When the West Australian gained his first two break points of the match in the first game of the third set, Kyrgios prevailed with a slice second serve and a beefy first serve.
Kyrgios’s critics should give him some credit for finishing the match, the most recent singles outing since he was fined $A12,840 and docked another $A27,071 in prizemoney by the ATP for walking out of a match in China without providing a medical reason to staff.
The Australian Davis Cup spearhead had not had strapping applied to his leg in a doubles match he played the previous day, but the first hint of looming trouble was when he arrived for his match with elastoplast in an “X’’ behind his knee.
There will be criticism of Kyrgios that he has fitness problems at the start of the year, especially after last playing a tournament in mid-October.
He admitted he had played too much basketball in the pre-season before his second-round loss at the Australian Open last summer in five weary sets against Italian Andreas Seppi.
But Kyrgios, 22, said in an interview last month that he had heeded that lesson, having played much less basketball in this offseason before the 2018 campaign as he realised it wasn’t good for his tennis physically.
When Kyrgios organised his game and mental approach to reach two break points when leading 4-3 in the second set,
Kyrgios had a chance at 15-30 when leading 6-5 in the second set, but missed a short forehand which should have given him two set points.
Kyrgios said it “sucked’’ that Andy Murray’s career is threatened by a hip injury which forced him out of the Brisbane International on Tuesday.
“He’s one of the best athletes the game has ever seen and he always said `Hello, how are you going?’ when he sees someone,’’ Kyrgios said.
“I’m sure a lot of people want him to be back at the top of the game.’’
Originally published as Brisbane International: Nick Kyrgios beats Matthew Ebden in Round of 16 clash
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