Half Greek, half Malasian aussie teenager Nick Kyrgios’ grand slam initiation ended with a straight sets defeat to Croatia’s 10th seed Marin Cilic in the French Open second round.
The 18-year-old amazed himself and the world this week when he stole a win from Czech tennis veteran Radek Stepanek.
After earning a wildcard spot after the injury withdrawal of compatriot John Millman, Kygios showed nothing of his world ranking of 262 to win 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (10-8) 7-6 (13-11).
His luck was broken in the second round, falling 6-4 6-2 6-2 against Cilic.
Still, the youngest man in the singles draw gave another good account of himself and will be sure to benefit from his first taste of the top level.
Just as in that first-round triumph, Kyrgios started nervously against world No.11 Cilic this week, failing to win a point in the opening two games.
He grew into the match steadily but couldn’t make up lost ground as Cilic took a one-set lead.
Kyrgios suffered what appeared to be a left hamstring injury early in the second set, calling a trainer for treatment, and Cilic raced away with the set.
Kyrgios continued to fight hard in the final set but Cilic’s class shone through as he set up a third round match against either Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver or Serbian Viktor Troicki.
Kyrgios, who won the junior title at the Australian Open in January, is still expected to contest the junior event at Roland Garros.
Amazingly, Kyrgios never saw himself as a professional tennis player and rather took up the game with a slight push from his mother.
“I can still remember my first lesson, I was six or seven,” he told Neos Kosmos earlier in the year.
“I was a pretty chubby little kid, I wasn’t very tall, and my mum sort of pushed me out onto the tennis courts. I didn’t really have a lot of talent I guess back then. But I really enjoyed it.”
The Canberra-born tennis star told Neos Kosmos after his Australian Open juniors victory that his goal was to start boosting his ATP world ranking.
“It’s going to be an exciting year transitioning into the professionals”. Not even he could have imagined the progress in just a few months.
