Nick Kyrgios says he could have gone to a dark place” when losing the third set of his round two match on Thursday night, but he kept his cool to secure a four-set win against Frenchman Gilles Simon.
The Australian won applause from the supportive crowd at Melbourne Arena for noting that he kept focus having raced through the first two sets.
Simon, ranked world No.61, stepped up his game in the third before Kyrgios steadied to win 6-2 6-4 4-6 7-5.
“I definitely lost my way a little bit,” Kyrgios conceded on Channel Nine after the match.
“He’s a tough competitor. He knows how to win matches. I had to refocus.
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“I could have gone to a dark place in the fourth set. I somehow pulled it away. I mean, it was a tough match. I’m happy to get through.
That would have been very interesting if it went to a fifth set.’’
Kyrgios pulled out 28 aces – boosting his charity drive for bushfire relief – but would not entertain thoughts of how far he could go in the tournament.
“I’m not thinking ahead,” he said.
“There are a lot of Aussies in the draw. A lot of great players. I’m taking it one match at a time.”
Earlier Australian wildcard Alex Bolt was the latest local to give a top seed a scare.
The world No.282 took Dominic Thiem led by two sets to one before the No.5 seed steadied to win 6-2 5-7 6-7 (5) 6-1 6-2.
In a match lasting three hours and 22 minutes, the South Australian left-hander was overpowered in the final two sets, but won more fans with his gutsy effort.
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Thiem was beaten at the same stage of last year’s Open by another Australian wildcard in Alexei Popyrin.
Popyrin was the big winner on day four, setting up a clash with fourth-seeded Russian Daniil Medvedev after overpowering Spain’s Jaume Munar 6-2 7-6 6-2.
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The pair have similar styles as well as Russian lineage, Popyrin still rising up the ranks at No.96 in the world but with a big serve and forehand and impressive movement for his height.
Medvedev breezed into the third round with a straight-sets win over qualifier Pedro Martinez.
One of the title fancies at Melbourne Park, Medvedev overpowered the Spaniard 7-5 6-1 6-3 in two hours and nine minutes.
Alexander Zverev also had a convincing second round, marching into the last 32 without dropping a set following his 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 7-5 victory over Egor Gerasimov.
Yet to reach the quarter-finals of a hardcourt or grasscourt major despite climbing to as high as No.3 in the world and winning the 2018 season-ending championship, Zverev arrived in Melbourne low on confidence and down on form.
He lost all three of his matches at the ATP Cup to Alex de Minaur, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Denis Shapovalov as Germany bombed out in the pool stages.
But the 22-year-old appears to be finding his groove on Melbourne Park’s faster surface, Zverev needing little more than two hours to see off Gerasimov.
“Definitely much better than the ATP Cup. Now into the third round, I’m very happy about that,” Zverev said, revealing he practised “six, seven hours a day” last week in a bid to iron out the chinks.
“To find my serve, my groundstrokes, whatever hasn’t been working at the ATP Cup.”
Earlier on Thursday, Australian duo Ajla Tomaljanovic and Priscilla Hon bowed out in the second round of the women’s singles.
Tomaljanovic went down 6-3 3-6 6-3 to two-time major winner Garbine Muguruza from Spain, and Hon was outclassed 6-3 6-2 by another former world No.1, Angelique Kerber from Germany.
More to come
-with AAP
