By Richard Pagliaro | Tuesday, May 30, 2017
A creaky left hip, lack of match play on clay and cracked confidence left Nick Kyrgios conceding there were major questions surrounding his status for Roland Garros.
Today, the explosive Australian provided plenty of answers.
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Kyrgios cracked 20 aces overpowering Philipp Kohlschreiber, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-3, rolling into the Roland Garros second round for the fourth time.
Juan Martin del Potro made a triumphant return to Paris after a five-year absence.
Playing his first Roland Garros match since the 2012 quarterfinals, del Potro dismissed Davis Cup teammate Guido Pella, 6-2, 6-1, 6-4, in an all-Argentine opener.
The 29th-seeded del Potro, who suffered a shoulder injury in his Lyon loss last week that left him uncertain for Paris, pumped in 13 aces, won 68 percent of his second-serve points and did not face a break point in the one hour, 49-minute conquest played on cozy Court 6.
"I am very happy to find Roland Garros after these five years," del Potro said afterward. "I feel in shape, free to play as I want."
The 2009 US Open champion will face either Nicolas Almagro or former Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis in round two. Though clay is not del Potro's preferred surface, he reached the Roland Garros semifinals in 2009, falling to eventual-champion Roger Federer, 3–6, 7–6 (2), 2–6, 6–1, 6–4. Months later, del Potro fought off Federer in five sets in the US Open final.
Successive clay-court setbacks—a straight-sets loss to eventual-champion Rafael Nadal in Madrid followed by an upset loss to Nicolas Kicker in Lyon last week—gave Kyrgios little confidence heading into his first career encounter with the crafty German veteran, who has won five of his seven career titles on clay.
A hip injury forced Kyrgios out of Rome after an elbow injury sidelined him for the season’s first clay-court Masters event in Monte Carlo.
All of those issues limited Kyrgios to just four clay-court matches on the year—and made today’s performance particularly satisfying for the world No. 19.
“I have obviously been struggling physically and obviously not having matches on the clay and not feeling that confident and I saw the draw and I thought it was going to be very tough,” Kyrgios told the media afterward. “He has been around for a long time now and he knows what to do to win matches and he is pretty comfortable on the clay.”
The Krygios serve was the key stroke to his third clay-court win of the season. He served 70 percent, won 81 percent of his first-serve points and erased all three break points he faced.
“I served really well today at important times of the match and I thought I played the right style to win today and hopefully I can keep going,” Kyrgios said.
Though he appeared to grimace a few times after some slides across the red clay, Kyrgios sounded cautiously optimistic about the state of his hip issue.
“I have been doing a lot of treatment during the day and at night as well,” Kyrgios said. “I will do all the right things after this … and hopefully it keeps pulling up OK for me to play.”
The 18th-seeded Australian will play either big-serving South African Kevin Anderson or Malek Jaziri for a place in the third round.
Kyrgios, who has reached major quarterfinals at the 2014 Wimbledon and 2015 Australian Open, admits his aversion to clay comes from an affinity for cleanliness.
"What don't I like about clay? I don't really like running," Kyrgios told the media in Paris. "That's one thing. So when the rally gets pretty long I tend to go for the low-percentage shot.
"I also don't like how my shoes get dirty. When I'm back home I don't really train that much on clay because it makes my car dirty, too."
Third-seeded Swiss Stan Wawrinka stopped Slovakian qualifier Jozef Kovalik, 6-2, 7-6 (6), 6-3, to reach the second round.
The 2015 champion fought off a pair of set points in the second-set tie break then cruised through the third set against the 152nd-ranked qualifier.
The reigning US Open champion will play Alexandr Dolgopolov for a spot in the third round. Dolgopolov defeated Carlos Berlocq, 7-5, 6-3, 6-4.