Wondering why 20-year-old Aussie Nick Kyrgios was so ornery during the first set of his second-round encounter with Juan Monaco? Well, the lad is ornery regardless, but there was something that may have exacerbated his emotions on Day 3.
Kyrgios is still suffering from a sinus infection, and it plagued him during the first set of his 7-6(5) 6-3 6-4 victory over the Argentine on Day 3.
“I’ve just had a bit of a sinus infection for the last couple of week,” he told reporters. “It’s getting to the end stages of it but it’s still affecting me a little bit. It does go away eventually bit it is pretty annoying at the start of matches. I started getting a bit of blurry vision but I thought I dug out the first set well and obviously lifted my energy a lot towards the second and third.”
Raonic, who fell in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon last year to Milos Raonic, will face the Canadian again in the third round.
“I’m excited,” he said. “Obviously to play a guy like that—he’s pretty much at the top of the game. I know what I have to do out there, but at the same time there’s not so much you can do on his serve.”
Raonic moved past 37-year-old Tommy Haas in four sets on Wednesday. The Canadian reached the semifinals at Wimbledon last year before losing to Roger Federer.
Kyrgios says he’s better off than he was last year when he faced Raonic after he shocked the world with his upset of Rafael Nadal in the round of 16. “It was tough emotionally,” he said. “I didn’t get much sleep the night leading up the Rafa match or after. “I thought I backed up pretty well,” he added. “I lost a tight four-set match. I had chances to win that, I was up a break in the third. I can take confidence out of that. I feel like I’m a much better athlete than what I was last year.”