Nick Kyrgios sprints through 1st round in Tokyo as he keeps ATP Finals hopes alive

| by Evita Mueller

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.

The 27-years-old Australian travelled to Tokyo for the 2022 Japan Open and he started the tournament as the fifth-seeded against Chun Hsin Tseng. However, the second-seeded Cameron Norrie withdrew from the event and no. 1 Casper Ruud lost already in the first round and so ahead of his first-round match, Nick Kyrgios was aware that his chances of winning are much bigger already if he gets into the second round.

2022 Japan Open Tokyo ATP Prize Money & Points Overview - $1,953,285
2022 Japan Open Tokyo ATP Prize Money & Points Overview - $1,953,285

21-years-old Tseng is certainly one of the challenging opponents as he's the 10th highest-ranked player under 22. 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 8 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 Top 120 of the ATP Rankings, the Australian will be a big favourite to reach the quarterfinals.

In the remainder of the season, Kyrgios plans to play in Basel and Paris and 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.

"She inspires millions of people and I think that's something that I bring as well" - Kyrgios on Osaka
"She inspires millions of people and I think that's something that I bring as well" - Kyrgios on Osaka

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