Everything as scripted in Sydney, where Nick Kyrgios disposes of Andrej Martin in the first rubber 6-3 6-2 6-4 in around one and a half hour. The difference in ranking (15 for Kyrgios, 127 for Martin) is reflected on the court, with the Aussie hitting the opponent hard with his serve and forehand; the biggest thrill comes from a Medical Time Out by Kyrgios due to nose bleed.
It took a little bit more effort for the second Australian “bad boy“, Bernard Tomic, to win over a good Jozef Kovalik in straight sets 7-6(5), 6-4, 6-4, extending Australia’s lead to 2-0 after day 1.
After a burning loss to USA on Kooyong’s grass in March, and with an additional feud ignited by Tomic’s accusations to Kyrgios of faking illness to avoid playing Australia’s Davis Cup tie, and Kyrgios paying him back on social media, Australia was to save honour and World Group ranking against Slovakia. On their hand Slovakia was attempting to end a 10 year absence from the World Group, after being demoted in 2006 and having lost 5 times the playoffs since.
It’s a beautiful springtime day in Sydney, with a blue sky (after a morning shower) and a temperature of 20C. Australia is hosting the World Group playoff with Slovakia. For the occasion, the Ken Rosewall Arena has been resurfaced with grass. At 11AM the opening ceremony: the two captains – Hewitt and Mecir – receive a louder cheer from the crowd. It does not come up as a surprise given that Slovakia is missing their two top players, Martin Klizan (ranked n.31 ATP) and Lukas Lacko (n.102), both out for injury, and given the love-hate towards the two Aussie bad boys Tomic and Kyrgios.
Shortly after 11AM Kyrgios and Martin start the first rubber. Kyrgios walked hunched like he was carrying Australia’s weight on his shoulder. There’s something I cannot quite grasp (who can?) in this player’s approach to a match: in the warm-up he plays tweeny volleys, serves with one foot one meter in the court, acts like it’s the first round of the social competition in a suburbian tennis club. Maybe it’s his way of staying calm, maybe the tension plays its tricks. And so … ready? Play.
Martin displays a good game, varying the drive backhand with the sliced one and coming often to the net, with serve and volley or after Nick’s return. It takes 4 games to Kyrgios to adjust and maybe shake a little bit of tension being super favourite and with a clear mission to accomplish. Then his serve becomes more consistent (72% of first serves for him, travelling at 200 km/h, but only 6 aces because Martin was really good at returning especially in the first set), as does his return, especially on Martin’s second serve (on 35% of points won on second serve for Martin). In less than one hour the Slovakian trails 6-3 6-2, playing a good tennis . “He plays some great tennis out there. I think he adapted really well to the grass, he was slicing, seemed pretty comfortable. I really had to earn that first set” says Kyrgios during the press conference.
Mecir scratches his head, Hewitt shouts one of his “c’mon”. Early in the third set, on 2-1 Martin, Kyrgios calls a MTO because his nose is bleeding “I get a lot of blood noses every now and then, so it’s nothing new but it’s a little bit of a hassle some times.” will comment Nick at the press conference, adding “I’m not trying to do a Novak at the US Open, I’ve got a bloody nose but I’ve got to fix it, I cannot play with nose coming out of my nose”.
Nick will keep on playing with cottonwool in his left nostril for most of the set. Helped by Hewitt, the Aussie dos not lose focus too long, and down 3-1 regroups and takes command hitting winners (15 in total for him today) to lead 5-3 and then close the match with a superb serving game: 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
At 1:20PM the second rubber starts, with Australian Bernie Tomic facing Jozef Kovalik (n. 123 ATP), who was lower than 250 at the beginning of the year. The match flows sleepily game after game, without big emotions, and with a little too many unforced errors (48 for Tomic and 45 for Kovalik at the end of the match, against 19 and 18 winners respectively). At 5-4 Tomic has got the first opportunity with a 3 break points: a return out, an ace and a backhand along the line gone wide keep Kovalik in the set. The tie break comes maybe unexpectedly, but reflecting the values showed on court: Kovalik is a solid player and when serving can put Tomic into trouble. The Aussie is capable of beautiful drop-shots or trivial unforced errors on soft balls. At 5-4 during the tie break, Tomic slices more and more and more with his backhand and the ball slides, slides, slides on the grass until Kovalik frames it, giving to set points to the Aussie: the second attempt is good, thanks to a return in the net by the Slovakian: 7-6(5) in 48 minutes.
Thanks to a break at the beginning of the second set, Tomic takes home the second set and then cruises up to 4-0 a few minutes after. Then he takes a powernap and falls asleep. “I do not know [what happened] “, he said during the press conference. “I was serving well, with a lot of slice on the second, up to that moment, and then I started feeling fatigued. I’ve been sick for a few days…” (and actually he sounds really nasal and looks tired). Anyway, on 4-0 ready to finish up Tomic falls asleep and wakes up 10 minutes later on 4 all. And here it’s Kovalik who lacks the confidence and does not believe it. A couple of unforced errors give the break to the Aussie who thanks him, serves well, gets a couple of beautiful inside-out forehands, gets a return out and one in the net by Kovalik and emerges as winner 7-6(5), 6-4, 6-4 in less than 2 hours.
So, Australia 2 – Slovakia 0 and mission(almost) accomplished, waiting for tomorrow’s doubles where Groth and Peers will take on Martin and Zelanay. Everything can happen with the Davis Cup, but this time Hewitt has done a great job of keeping his boys focused, who have given Australia “a great start” in Hewitt’s own words.
