Nick Kyrgios explains the essential element in his win over John Millman
Unlike twelve months ago, Nick Kyrgios was off to a rough start of the new season, experiencing troubles off the court already in December and winning just one match in Brisbane where he was the title defender. There was more bad news waiting around the corner when he lost in the first round of the Australian Open following a straight sets loss to Milos Raonic. The Australian gave his best against the better-ranked opponent although he couldn't win at least a set, failing to create a break point and losing serve twice from seven opportunities he gave to Milos after a minor knee injury that reduced his efficiency and chances.
Nick had not been called for the Australian Davis Cup team against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Adelaide, flying to Dallas instead where he trained with Texas A&M tennis squad under the legendary coach Steve Denton. Nick entered the doubles draw at the RBC Tennis Championships of Dallas, competing at his sixth Challenger in a career outside singles and just the second after 2014, losing in the opening round of Surbiton with Jackson Withrow last June. Nick and Mitchel Krueger lost 6-7, 7-6, 10-5 to Romain Arneodo and Andrei Vasilevski and the Aussie decided to skip Rotterdam and return to action this week in Delray Beach.
Playing against each other for the second time, Nick Kyrgios and John Millman competed in the most exciting match of the opening day at Delray Beach Open, with Nick scoring a 6-4, 6-7, 7-6 triumph in two hours and four minutes. Kyrgios played just three singles matches so far in 2019 before this event and he grabbed the second win, firing 19 aces and 11 double faults while playing against only one break point. Millman couldn't convert it although he had his chances as well, losing serve once in the entire match and staying neck and neck with Nick until the deciding tie break that the younger Aussie won 7-3 to reach the second round.
Interestingly, Kyrgios scored the only break of the match at the very beginning when Millman sent a backhand long, saving a break point with a great drop shot in game four and closing the opener with a service winner at 5-4. Nothing could separate them in set number two, reaching the tie break that Millman claimed 7-1 after a poor forehand from Nick who seemed to play at some 30% of his abilities. Despite that, his initial shot carried him through the third set as well and he grabbed the tie break 7-3 after John's forehand error to secure the place in the second round.
Just like many times before, this wasn't the most excellent performance from Nick in terms of leaving everything on the court and fighting for every point and he admitted it was the serve that kept him in the match and gave him the triumph.
“My serve keeps bailing me out of these types of matches, which is pretty fortunate for me,” said Kyrgios. “I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. John is one of the toughest competitors on the Tour and he’s a good mate of mine, so I’m just happy to get through with the win.”
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2V5SPap
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