Nick Kyrgios, cheered on by a green-and-gold clad throng of his fellow Australians on No.2 Court, clocked up the expected comfortable first round victory over Diego Schwartzman, a diminutive Argentinian making his Wimbledon debut.
However, the 6-0, 6-2, 7-6(6) win contained what so many of Kyrgios’s matches seem to feature, a whiff of controversy along the way.
Midway through a third set which had become unexpectedly tight, Kyrgios was so upset about a baseline call that went against him that he advanced towards umpire Mohamed Lahyani, shouted “I am not going to play” and threw his racket to the ground. After what looked likely to become a stand-off, Kyrgios appeared to accept Lahyani’s version of the incident and carried on, but not without loud grumbling which included choice expletives and the words “dirty scum” after he dropped serve to fall 4-2 behind.
Boosted by some self-encouraging roars, Kyrgios immediately broke back and took the third set into a tie-break, which he won on his second match point by eight points to six as Schwartzman drove a forehand service return into the net. Afterwards, Kyrgios stressed that the “scum” remark had not been directed at the referee but against himself.
I play the sport the way I play it. I think the sport needs characters
Thanks for the support. Round 2 next, lets go. #sw19 http://t.co/n7O0xJVS1a
— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) June 29, 2015He repeated that he felt the call had been wrong. “I’m not too fussed about the call to be honest, but if it was at a more crucial time in the match or deeper in the tournament, that could swing things. So it shouldn’t be something that can be taken lightly.” As for a suggestion about “feistiness”, Kyrgios claimed, “I play the sport the way I play it. I think the sport needs characters.”
His place as a character in tennis was established at the 2014 Championships when, as a wild card, he eliminated the then world No.1 Rafael Nadal to reach the quarter-finals. This year he has struggled with a succession of injuries to back, foot and then right elbow, also saying that he lacked fitness.
There were no signs of a fitness problem as, with the supporters chanting their acclaim, he swept the 22-year-old Schwartzman aside, claiming the opening set in just 17 minutes and rounding it off with a 134mph ace. At this stage Kyrgios looked irresistible, his only poor touch occurring when he attempted to dink a ball back to a ball boy and managed to strike a line judge on the top of the head instead.
After Schwartzman, to cheers from the non-Australian section of the audience, had won his first game at the start of the second set, Kyrgios roared away again to sweep five games in succession, managing another “strike” on a linesman with a 129mph serve and was two sets ahead with just 42 minutes played.
Then, unexpectedly the foot came off the accelerator, Schwartzman perked up and started to play better and Kyrgios came closer than he was prepared to admit to finding himself playing a fourth set. In the end, he won comfortably enough and acknowledged: “I was really pleased with the way it came out.”
