By Stuart Miller
The main event Monday at the US Open was the star-studded Serena Williams lovefest with a tennis match thrown in for good measure. While Nick Kyrgios couldn’t match that extravaganza, he did put on quite a show in his first-round win over longtime pal and doubles partner Thanasi Kokkinakis.
Booming serves, blistering forehands, deft drop shots and nifty touch volleys … there were stretches, especially on his own serve, where it seemed Kyrgios had forgotten how to miss. And he did it all double time, wasting nary a second between points as he won the 200th match of his career 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) in 2 hours and 1 minute, playing as if he wanted to dazzle the crowd with his efficiency as much as his athleticism.
Kyrgios was extremely uncomfortable playing his close friend -“when I was really struggling, he was always supportive” – and seemed happy to get it over with as quickly as possible. “It was a nightmare,” Kyrgios said of the matchup afterwards. “It was one of the most uncomfortable matches I’ve played. I was trying to block out his body and play the tennis ball. That kind of helped me.”
Kyrgios remained even-tempered, even placid throughout, except for some minor contretemps over a lacklustre ball person. That was especially impressive because, as he noted afterwards, he is “exhausted” from being on the road, adding that most players on the tour don’t understand the toll sustained travel takes on Australians. “I’ve been away for four months, there have been babies born in my family and my mom’s sick and my dad’s not well,” he said. “I’m not complaining, but it’s hard, so I’m proud of my performance.”
Kokkinakis didn’t play badly, especially because he explained after that he had a hard time “getting fired up” because he was playing his friend and the Williams match had drained away much of the energy. (The crowd, which had thinned considerably after Williams’ match, was enthusiastic but left in droves after Kyrgios won the second set.).
When Kyrgios closed his first game out with a crisp serve and volley, Kokkinakis responded by punctuating his with an ace. And they were off to the races. Kyrgios blasted a 214km/hr ace up the centre line to take a 3-2 lead but Kokkanakis served up two aces, including one to make it 3-3.
Nick Kyrgios started his US Open campaign in fine style.Credit:Getty
Finally, however, at 4-3 in the first set, Kokkinakis cracked. Just a little but that was too much. Two mistakes off shots that Kyrgios hit with heavy topspin gave the favourite a 15-40 edge and on the next serve he hit an untouchable forehand winner at a sharp angle that put a punctuation point on the service break.
Kyrgios closed out the first set in half an hour, then started the second set with a beautifully placed backhand winner down the line for a winner. Kokkinakis crumbled then, sandwiching two bad forehand errors around a double fault and Kyrgios consolidated that service break with two aces and a delicate drop shot to make it 2-0.
Kokkinakis then steadied himself, but it was too late, as Kyrgios continued to prove unbeatable on his serve, hitting aces or serves big enough to set up winners off both wings. Even when Kokkinakis managed to pressure him with deeper returns of serve, Kyrgios showed off superior footwork, constantly re-setting himself to drive the ball back just as deep and with more spin and pace.
The Wimbledon finalist closed out the second set by drilling a forehand winner. The match was just over an hour old but Kyrgios started the third set with a shot that declared he had no intention of slowing down, an inside out backhand winner off a first serve. Still, Kokkinakis continued to fight, holding serve throughout the set even though he rarely seemed a threat to break Kyrgios and climb back into the match.
On the first point of the eighth game, Kyrgios pulled out a crowd-pleasing tweener on a beautiful lob from Kokkinakis – it was not one of his best but Kokkinakis misplayed it and Kyrgios followed with an ace and three service winners. As if to say, “Wait, I’m still here,” Kokkinakis ended his next service game with three consecutive aces for a 5-4 lead.
The powerhouse duo would finish the match with 27 total (14 for Kokkinakis) and nearly half of all serves went unreturned. But Kyrgios never faced a break point and cashed in two of his five opportunities.
“We know each other’s games like the back of our hand,” Kyrgios said after, noting that they’d been playing each other or as doubles partners since they were nine years old. “I had a clear game plan to move him as much as I could and not let him dictate. I took a bit off my first serves to get them in and spread the court when I could and I wanted to change directions during rallies when I could.”
The friends marched into a third set tiebreaker, one ace answering another. At that point, some in the remaining crowd started loudly cheering “Let’s go TK” in the hopes of willing a fourth set into existence. But in the one long rally of the tiebreaker, Kokkinakis got over eager to finish it and missed an attempt at a forehand winner. Kyrgios smashed an overhead winner that bounced into the stands to earn match point and then slammed the door shut with a service winner.
“We never want to play each other again,” Kyrgios said. “I can’t wait to get out there and play with him on the right side of the net in doubles in a few days.”
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