NIck Kyrgios shows fight and fitness before a loss to big-serving Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in his long-awaited comeback in Brisbane.
Brisbane, Australia, 31 December 2024 | AAP
Nick Kyrgios could only shrug his shoulders as big-serving rising star Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard crashed the Australian’s tennis comeback party in Brisbane.
The Australian was frustrated but showed fight and fitness in a 7-6(2) 6-7(4) 7-6 3) loss that stretched nearly two-and-a-half hours and featured no breaks of serve.
The 21-year-old French talent surged from outside the world’s top 200 to finish 31 in the world this year, his huge weapon on both first and second serves arguably already the most devastating in the sport.
Kyrgios, playing just his second tour-level singles match in two-and-a-half years after a troublesome wrist injury, experienced the full brunt of that a day after partnering Novak Djokovic in a Monday night doubles win.
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Mpetshi Perricard served 36 aces to Kyrgios’s 15, regularly topping 220kmh with ease and backing himself with huge second serves to compound the pain.
“Surely you understand my frustration,” Kyrgios told the chair umpire Christian Rask, who had quietly warned him to watch his language after missing a rare chance to break in the second set.
Kyrgios, 29, was otherwise subdued against the ice-cold Frenchman, who gave the Australian an ironic dose of his own medicine as he prepares to relaunch a career based around his own incredible serve.
A running forehand winner gave the French talent an early buffer in the first-set tiebreak, sealed with a ninth ace and a 73 per cent first serve percentage.
Mpetshi Perricard had Kyrgios guessing again as the second set hurtled towards a tiebreak.
Kyrgios turned the screws and forced some errors to level the contest and cracks began to appear on both players’ serves in the decider.
The Australian was fluent in the third set but again it was the French star who pounced on an early error to take control of the decisive tiebreak then serve his way to victory.
Earlier Alexei Popyrin’s Australian Open preparations hit a snag, humbled by Italian Matteo Arnaldi in the Brisbane International first round.
The world No.24 Australian was outplayed 6-3 6-2 on Tuesday, Arnaldi moving to 3-1 in their career head-to-head in the process.
Popyrin will be seeded for the first time at next month’s Australian Open after a 2024 headlined by his Masters 1000 triumph in Montreal and upset of Novak Djokovic to reach the fourth round of the US Open.
He has a game Australian tennis great John Newcombe thinks can carry him into the world’s top-10 next year.
But the Italian world No.37, two years Popyrin’s junior at 23, demonstrated just how competitive the field was in a 68-minute procession.
Australian world No.93 Adam Walton then pushed fifth-seeded American Frances Tiafoe, who saved set points in the first set before turning the tables in a 7-6(5) 6-3 victory.
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