Australia’s John Millman insists he is looking forward to a first career meeting with Nick Kyrgios in the first round of the US Open. The draw is a hard one for the Aussie, currently ranked No.176 in the world after sometime out with injury.
Yet Millman believes he has a good a chance as any in taking down his countryman: “It’s well documented that Nick’s got a massive game and his record speaks for itself in terms of the guys he’s beaten, so it’s another rough draw.
It’s been a bit of a tradition for me in the slams for the last little bit. But that’s alright. It’s all part of it and I’ll be ready to go on Tuesday. I’ve got to keep to my strengths out there. Nick will probably want to finish the rallies with his big game sooner rather than later and I’ll probably want to extend the rallies and make it as physical as possible.
I definitely will have to play some of my best tennis. We all know if Nick rocks up and he’s fully fit and ready to go physically and mentally, sometimes it’s an exhibition out there. It makes the game look very easy.
But I hope that he’s fit and I hope that he’s ready to go and that we can play a good match because you don’t want to play someone when they’re unfit. You want to play them when they’re fired up and playing good tennis.
That will bring the best out of myself too.”
Kyrgios spent part of the summer struggling with a hip injury, an issue that forced him to retire in the first round of Wimbledon against Pierre-Hugues Herbert. Kyrgios was also forced to withdraw from the Washington DC event with the same problem.
However, Kyrgios was a finalist in the Cincinnati Masters last week, a run that included straight set wins over David Goffin, World No.1 Rafael Nadal, and David Ferrer. He was beaten in his first Masters 1000 final by Grigor Dimitrov. The run to the final in Cincinnati would appear to indicate that Kyrgios has recovered from his hip injury that so troubled him through the summer.
