Nick Kyrgios kept a calm eye in the midst of a crazy storm.
Hecklers, helicopters, a head shot to the chair umpire and a faulty sound system eliciting feedback disrupted the 17th-seeded Aussie's second-round clash.
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Kyrgios kept cool and prevailed over the dangerous Viktor Troicki, 7-5, 6-4, 7-6 (2) to set up a third-round showdown with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
A prankster fan standing near Kyrgios' began screaming at one point while clutching a smart phone taping his antics. Security evicted the prankster from Hisense Arena.
"I think obviously it's pretty easy to think, Why me?" Kyrgios said afterward. "The guy in the crowd was crazy. I didn't really know what was going on. The helicopter, that's when I was thinking like, Of course, it's at my match. It's just hovering there. Of course, it is.
"But that actually made it tough. It was tough to return. Hearing the ball actually come off the racquets is a pretty big thing. I missed four returns. I'm just going to blame it on the helicopter. But, yeah, there were a lot of things going on there today."
The chair umpire's microphone wasn't consistently working prompting some fans in the Hisense Arena crowd to cheer each time it did work creating yet another distraction to the players.
"Yeah, it was tough. I told the umpire to maybe just not use a microphone any more because the crowd just found it so amusing," Kyrgios said. "I mean, I was just like, Dude, just stop doing it. It's going to create more of a circus. He stopped doing it. Obviously it was tough. It felt like I was playing at another tournament. I didn't hear the microphone, no music at change of ends. It was a strange atmosphere."
Chair umpire James Keothavong showed his toughness smiling off this inadvertent shot in the noggin from a Troicki return.
Despite it all, Kyrgios advanced to the Melbourne third round for the third time in the last four years, conceding in his younger years "I could be losing that match."
Kyrgios, who has often called Hisense Arena his favorite court in his home country, said after the experience he's ready to move on to the bigger stage of Rod Laver Arena match for what could be a blockbuster vs. 2008 finalist Tsonga.
"Yeah, I think I'm ready for it," Kyrgios said. "I played a lot of matches on Rod Laver. I've hit on it a lot of times. I'm ready for it."
Kyrgios will face his former tennis hero in Tsonga.
The 15th-ranked Tsonga won the final four games of the match rallying past Denis Shapovalov in five sets. Tsonga defeated Kyrgios, 7-6 (5), 2-6, 6-4 in their lone meeting at the Marseille semifinals last winter.
Tsonga also made quite an impression on the 12-year-old Kyrgios autographing a new tennis ball every day for the Aussie youngster, who attended all of the Frenchman's practices during his run to the 2008 final.
"Obviously [Jo is a] guy I looked up to growing up," Kyrgios said. "I've seen him play a lot. I know what he's going to bring. He knows what I'm going to bring. It's going to be a lot of fun.
"It was just the way he played his game. I liked his aggressive style of tennis. He had a big serve, big forehand. He played an entertaining style tennis. When I was 12, I went to all his practice sessions. He made the final in 2008. I think I was 12. I went to all his practice sessions with a new ball. He signed it every day. I don't know if he remembers. I didn't miss one of his practice sessions."
Photo credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve