Cincinnati, Aug. 17 (BUS): Nick Kyrgios quickly regained his composure after losing his temper during a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina on Tuesday to reach the second round of the Cincinnati Open, where he will face a tough time. American Taylor Fritz hit.
Kyrgios appeared in complete control when he smashed an irreversible serve to take the first set and went on to break early in the second, Reuters reported.
But when the Spaniard drew 2-2, it caused the fiery Australian to launch a ball into the stands in a moment reminiscent of his third-round victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas at Wimbledon, as the Greek did the same, and Kyrgios argued unsuccessfully that she must be behind.
But Kyrgios quickly regained his cool, holding on to love in the next match and sealing the win with another huge serve to arrange a meeting with his friend Fritz in the last tuning event before the US Open, which begins on August 29 in New York.
“Fritzie is a good companion of mine,” Kyrgios said.
“He’s just a player who is good at everything, he has a big serve. He likes to play up front, like myself. It’s going to be a very big serve so we’ll see how it goes.”
Fritz’s powerful serve and strong comeback led to a comprehensive 6-1 6-1 win over Argentine Sebastian Baez earlier in the day.
The win was the 33rd, 11th seed Fritz this year, and extended the Bayes’ losing streak to six matches.
Italy’s Yannick Sener, the 10th seed, came in a marathon match against Australian Thansi Kokinakis 6-7 (9), 6-4, 7-6 (6) to advance to 37-10 this year.
In other first-round matches, American Tommy Ball defeated fellow countryman Jenson Broxby 6-3, 6-2, and Australian Alex de Minaur sent Swiss Henri Laksonen 6-2, 6-2, and Croatian Borna Coric beat Lorenzo Musseti 7-6 (2) 6. 3 Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas beat Italian Fabio Fognini 6-2, 6-3 in the Masters 1000.