Publications
Partners
Melbourne - Australia's big hope Nick Kyrgios admitted he was nervous as he stormed into the second round of the Australian Open on Monday, collecting a code violation along the way.
The volatile 17th seed was on autopilot throughout as he disposed of Brazilian Rogerio Dutra Silva 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 in 87 minutes.
He played a flawless opening set but that didn't stop him from receiving a code violation early in the match.
The Australian was serving for a 4-1 lead when he told a member of the crowd to keep quiet during his service motion in colourful language that did not go down well with the chair umpire.
Kyrgios and the umpire exchanged words during the changeover after the Australian had taken the opening set for the loss of one game in just 28 minutes.
"All you have to do is say 'please be quiet when the player is serving'," Kyrgios told the umpire.
"If you did it the first time, he wouldn't have done it the second time, correct? Correct??"
Kyrgios added afterwards: "I just was surprised that he didn't say anything to the crowd as soon as I'm serving. I don't know. Obviously didn't bother me too much."
The Brazilian, ranked 100th, halted a losing run of seven straight games to get on the board in the second set to an ironic roar from the festive crowd.
But Kyrgios swept through the second set in just 23 minutes and again broke the Brazilian in the seventh game of the final set to close out the match.
Kyrgios won his first home ATP Tour title at the Brisbane International and is looking to go further than a quarter-final appearance in Melbourne three years ago.
"I was very nervous to come out here first match of the Australian Open and I obviously want to play well for you guys (crowd)," he said after the match.
"I don't think that I played as well as I was playing in Brisbane right now. Hopefully I can continue to improve and find my feet out here."
He also spoke of the expectations of playing in a home Grand Slam.
"Obviously, people expect me to do very well here. But I guess you just put the added pressure on yourself," he said.
"You want to do well in front of your home crowd, just want to make them proud, I guess."
Kyrgios faces a harder opponent in Serbia's Viktor Troicki in the next round, admitting he would be "tricky".
"He's been on the tour for a long time. Won a lot of matches. In the Grand Slams, he's made the fourth round a lot of times," he said.
"He knows the ups and downs that come in a Grand Slam match."
