Nick Kyrgios and Andy Murray are very good friends, and the Australian wasn’t happy to play his mate on Andy’s comeback match at Queens.
Murray was out of the competitions for almost 1 year because of his hip injury and the following operation back in January. Eventually, the former world no.1 decided to get back to competition at the prestigious ATP500 at Queens, but then he had the nasty surprise of playing Nick in the first round.
The match
Andy had a surprisingly good start to win the opener easily after breaking Kyrgios in the 6th game (4-2). Nick didn’t take it nicely, and he lost his concentration also to drop his following service game (at love) and lose the opener 6-2.
The second set was a completely different story with the exchange of 3 consecutive breaks at the beginning that gave the opportunity to Nick to finally have a strong 4-2 lead. However, Murray found the solution to break Kyrgios again in the 8th game to make it even (4-4). There was no time to be disappointed again, and Kyrgios kept his focus to win the next breaker (7-6) and bring the contest to the decider.
There were no breaks in the 3rd sets with Kyrgios holding his service games without problems. That wasn’t the case for Andy that struggled to hold on 3 occasions in the 2nd, the 6th, and 10th game. Eventually, the Brit folded in the last game to lose the match 2-6 7-6 (4) 7-5.
I am glad that he is back. KYRGIOS
Nick was rather emotional about this contest to comment
“It was strange because on big points I always felt bad if I showed any emotion.
A lot of other guys, if I’m up 30-love and I have a match point I’m probably getting a bit psyched up.
It was very good to see him back out there, but it was a very awkward match for me.
The guy hadn’t played a match in a year, and I was getting smoked in the first set, I was like, ‘This is not going to be a good look if I lose here’.
I’m happy I pulled it through, but I was just glad to see him back out there. If tomorrow he is not too stiff then it is probably a success for him.”
Next vs. Edmund
Nick will play another Brit in the 2nd round as he will face Kyle Edmund. They have never played each other so far.
BIG MATES |
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