Nick Kyrgios showed he did not miss a beat during his tennis hiatus after he produced a sumptuous shot to finish off his first singles match in two months.
Kyrgios has signed up to play singles and doubles at this week's Stuttgart Open. He had been away from the Tour for a couple of months. His last match was a semifinal defeat to Reilly Opelka on the clay of Houston in early April.
The 27-year-old returned to his home country to recharge for the grass-court swing. Surprisingly, Kyrgios did not play on European clay, including at Roland Garros.
He made his long-awaited comeback in Stuttgart, Germany, to play in the first warm-up tournament of this year's Wimbledon. He won his first match in doubles with Alexander Bublik.
Kyrgios has now backed up that success by emerging victorious in his first-round match in singles. He defeated Czech rising star Jiri Lehecka 7-6(3), 6-3 in an hour and 18 minutes.
Before the grass-court swing began, Kyrgios announced to the world that he was the best player on the surface and had to prove it in the most spectacular manner.
Kyrgios faced two breakpoints in the first set but he got it into the tie-break where he dominated his opponent and won it 7-3. In the second set, he didn't allow Lehecka to have any breakpoints as he had two.
He converted the second one and ended the match with a game to love, as he decided to finish off the last point in style. Despite hitting 18 aces during the match, Kyrgios decided to play an underarm tweener serve, which caught his opponent off guard, as he missed the return.
He most certainly put the money where his mouth is giving tennis fans inside the stadium a takeaway moment from the match that they will remember for years to come
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