Nick Kyrgios sprints through 1st round in Tokyo as he keeps ATP Finals hopes alive
ATP
After not playing for almost a month, Nick Kyrgios returned to action with a stunning performance, as he spent only slightly more than an hour on the court at the 2022 Japan Open in Tokyo.
The 27-year-old Australian traveled to Tokyo for the 2022 Japan Open, and he started the tournament as fifth-seeded against Chun Hsin Tseng.
The second-seeded Cameron Norrie withdrew from the event, and No. 1 Casper Ruud lost already in the first round, so ahead of his first-round match, Kyrgios was aware that his chances of winning the event were much higher if he got into the second round.
21-year-old Tseng is certainly one of the challenging opponents, as he's the 10th highest-ranked player under 22 years of age. But Kyrgios is having a superb year, and it showed.
Despite facing a break point already in the first game of the match, he stayed calm and got a chance to break his opponent in the sixth game.
He didn't hesitate and got the only break of the first set despite having two more break points two games later. Thanks to his quick style of play, especially on his serve, Kyrgios won the first set 6-3 in only 36 minutes.
The second set was also rapid, but this time, it was also because of the scoreline. The Australian lost only one point on his serve and broke his opponent three times to win the match 6-3, 6-1 in an hour and eight minutes.
In the second round of the tournament, he will play against Kamil Majchrzak or Sho Shimabukuro, and since none of these players are ranked inside of the Top 120 of the ATP Rankings, the Australian will be a big favorite to reach the quarter-finals.
In the remainder of the season, Kyrgios plans to play in Basel and Paris, so with a deep run in Tokyo, he could challenge for one of the spots in the 2022 ATP Finals. So far, Carlos Alcaraz, Rafael Nadal, Casper Ruud, and Stefanos Tsitsipas are the only four players on the entry list.
