Australian star Nick Kyrgios came back from one set down to beat France’s Alexander Muller 3-6 6-4 7-6 (7-4) after 1 hour and 52 minutes at the Murray River Open in Melbourne in his first ATP Tour match since the Abierto Mexicano in Acapulco last February, when he retired from the match against Ugo Humbert.
Muller converted his first break point in the eighth game to win the first set 6-3 in 23 minutes after Kyrgios made a double fault.
Kyrgios converted his fourth break point in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead. Muller broke back in the ninth game, as Krgyos was serving for the set at 5-3. The 25-year-old Australian player closed out the second set with his second break in the 10th game after calling for on-court treatment. The third set went on serve with no breaks until the tie-break. Muller came back from 1-4 down to draw level to 4-4. Kyrgios won the final three point with a mini-break to take a 7-4 lead.
Kyrgios set up a second round match against Harry Bourchier.
“It was a tricky one. I have not played a competitive match in about a year. I dealt with a couple of injuries in the quarantine. It was a bit strange to play a match. Even the point system was strange. I did not enjoy playing without spectators, so I am really happy that I played in front of fans today. When I lost the first set I never really panicked. I was actually just still finding my feet honestly. I actually thought I was serving reasonably well. I wasn’t serving anywhere near my best. I wasn’t playing anywhere near my best, but I thought my attitude was okay. I kept that pretty calm. I am actually happy the way I dealt with it and I just drew from experience. I was nice to myself. I was like: ‘Look, you lost a set, your first set back and you are playing a guy who has nothing to lose really.’ I actually think that he would have beaten a fair few guys in the draw today. All around. I just believed, really”, said Kyrgios.
Alexei Popyrin fended off six match points in his hard-fought 6-7 (8-10) 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (9-7) win over Croatia’s Borna Gojo. Popyrin was not able to convert at 6-7 in the tie-break of the first set and fended off four match points on serve at 4-5 in the second set and two more chances at 5-6 and 6-7 in the tie-break of the third set.
“I think when the first three came along. It was three in a row on my serve. I was just taking it one point at a time, trying it one point at a time, trying to get my serve in, trying to hit a big first serve and get a good opportunity to finish the point as quick as possible, because I knew when I would get a rally in a rally I did not feel quite as comfortable today. I think the conditions were also quite hard. It was quite windy, so it was important to get those first serves in and all the match points, and that’s what I did”, said Popyrin.
Australia’s James Duckworth beat Tomas Machac 6-3 6-4 after winning 26 of his 30 first-service points. Duckworth set up a second round match against Frenchman Ugo Humbert.
