Montreal, Aug. 10 (BNA): Nick Kyrgios maintained his last hot streak with a 6-4 6-4 victory over Sebastian Baez at the Canadian Open on Tuesday to set up a second-round confrontation with world number one Daniil Medvedev. .
The Australian was far from his best, even suffering a rare break in serve, but his booming serve and resounding forehand finally overpowered the Argentine, Reuters reported.
Kyrgios has won 13 of his last 14 matches, his only loss coming to Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final in June.
Both Kyrgios and Medvedev entered the Masters 1000 tournament in Montreal after winning titles at the US Open events.
Kyrgios won the City Open in Washington, D.C. for the second time last weekend while Medvedev didn’t drop a set en route to lifting the trophy in Los Cabos.
“Medvedev came from a title too, and he’s number one in the world,” said Kyrgios, who leads 2-1 over the Russian.
“It’s not as if ranking means a lot because the player I played today is very high for me. But Medvedev is a machine.”
Kyrgios is currently ranked 37th in the world, but it will be higher if the ranking points are distributed at this year’s Wimbledon. Bayes is number 32.
Under the spotlight in the evening session, Taylor Fritz beat frustrated Andy Murray 6-1 6-3 in a rain-delayed first-round match.
Fritz was virtually flawless in the first set, unleashing a unique combination of strength and prowess to put the former world number one from Scotland ahead.
Murray fought hard in the second, but could not solve the mystery presented by the towering American in their first professional encounter and smashed his racket against the court at several frustrating points.
Next for Fritz is a meeting with his compatriot Francis Tiafoe after he recovered from a set down to defeat Benjamin Ponzi 6-7 (6) 7-5 6-3.
In other first-round matches, Frenchman Gael Monfils returned to the ATP tour after a three-month break with a 7-6 (4) 3-6, 6-2 victory over Pedro Martinez, then faces American Maxime Creasy, who was aged 6 years old -4 6-4 winner over Aslan Karatsev.
Alex de Minaur, Dan Evans, Marin Cilic, Tommy Paul and Grigor Dimitrov were among the other first-round winners on Tuesday.