- Saturday, April 27, 2024
By: Sattwik Biswal
NICK KYRGIOS won his first match since the Australian Open on Wednesday (30), defeating French 21st seed Ugo Humbert in five sets at Wimbledon before declaring: “Not bad for a part-time player”.
The 60th-ranked Kyrgios triumphed 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 9-7 in a match held over from Tuesday (29) evening when the final set was level at 3-3.
“Not bad for a part-time player,” said Kyrgios who had also defeated Humbert in five sets at the Australian Open.
“Ugo is an incredible kid and I knew I was a massive underdog.
“It was easy to get off the couch in Canberra as Wimbledon is one of my favourite events and I heard there was going to be a crowd so it was an easy decision to come here.”
“I got home late yesterday and was in such pain physically this morning, but it’s easy to get up with a full crowd and it was so much fun.”
“It’s a great change of scenery,” added Kyrgios who is playing his first event outside of his own country for the first time since the 2020 Australian Open.
Kyrgios shrugged off an ugly-looking fall in the 13th game of the final set when his right knee buckled beneath him.
On Tuesday (29), he was overheard muttering that Court One was a joke.
His 23 aces and 51 winners sent him into a second round clash with Italy’s Gianluca Mager.
Four of those aces had come on Tuesday (29) in the first game of the fourth set, a service game which took just 43 seconds.
(AFP)
