Playing in his mother’s land is a special occasion for Nick Kyrgios who is keen on putting the whole incident with Stan Wawrinka behind him, as well as his recent omission from Australia’s Davis Cup team. Now Kyrgios is keen to focus on letting his tennis do the talking and that is exactly what he’s doing in Kuala Lumpur where he backed up a first round victory against Santi Girlado with a swift victory over Tatsuma Ito in straight sets.
Kyrgios has stated this week that his “goal is to win this tournament. I hadn’t played in many tournaments the past few weeks, but I have been doing a lot of hard work these past few weeks and it showed today”.
The young Australian will now face a tough test against Ivo Karlovic in the quarter finals after the Croatian struggled to overcome Basilashvili in three sets. Benjamin Becker also booked his tickets for the round of eight after upsetting Jeremy Chardy 5-7, 6-1, 7-5.
Joao Sousa and Mischa Zverev were in first round action and defeated Prysiezny and Rajeev Ram respectively.
