Rising Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios’ injury comeback has fallen flat with a three-set defeat to world number 192 Elias Ymer at the Barcelona Open.

Second-seeded Spaniard Rafael Nadal, meanwhile, had a much more enjoyable start to his campaign, avenging last year’s quarter-final loss to Nicolas Almagro by beating his fellow Spaniard 6-3, 6-1.

World number 44 Kyrgios, who has been sidelined with an ankle complaint since his second-round loss to Grigor Dimitrov at Indian Wells a month ago, blew multiple chances to overcome his 19-year-old opponent before going down 2-6, 7-5, 7-6 (9/7) in just under two-and-a-half hours on Wednesday.

The 16th seed, playing as a seed in an ATP Tour event for the first time, jumped out of the blocks to breeze through the first set in typically cavalier fashion before losing a tightly-contested second set 7-5.

The Wimbledon and Australian Open quarter-finalist, who turns 20 next week, then raced out to a 3-0 lead in the deciding set only to seize up as his less-experienced rival took the ascendancy.

Having forced the tiebreak, Ymer then capitalised to hold a mini break at 5-4, only to lose both points on his own serve, allowing Kyrgios to serve for the match.

But the Australian returned the favour and Ymer was able to advance to the third round to face third seed David Ferrer, who beat fellow Spaniard Albert Montanes 6-2, 6-3.

Nadal dominates compatriot Almagro

Meanwhile, Nadal, who lost last week to Novak Djokovic in their Monte Carlo semi-final, rebounded with a solid performance to advance to the third round.

Almagro upset Nadal on the same red clay court last year to end the eight-time champion’s run of 41 consecutive wins at the tournament he has dominated for almost a decade.

“Nico is a danger because of the potential he has. At the start he served very well and won a lot of points on the second stroke,” Nadal said.

“It was difficult, so I decided to step back a metre and put more balls in play and, bar the final game, I controlled the match.

“I committed very few errors and I hadn’t forgotten that he beat me last year.”

Nadal will face Fabio Fognini in the last 16 after the Italian beat 17-year-old Russian Andrey Rublev 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.

In other matches, US Open champion Marin Cilic’s disappointing season continued as he was eliminated by Dominican Victor Estrella Burgos 6-4, 6-4 while former Australian Open finalist Jo Wilfried-Tsonga was the other big name to exit, losing to Barcelona local Marcel Granollers 6-4, 6-2.

Santiago Giraldo set up a third-round meeting with top seed and defending champion Kei Nishikori with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 over Portugal’s Joao Sousa.

Source: AAP