French Open: Nick Kyrgios victorious at Roland Garros
Sunday 22 May 2016 15:18, UK
Nick Kyrgios booked his placed in the second round of the French Open after an entertaining three set victory over Italy's Marco Cecchinato.
The Aussie, seeded 17th at Roland Garros, was comfortable on his own serve throughout, but a thrilling mix of groundstrokes from Cecchinato ensured Kyrgios was never able to fully settle despite a 7-6 7-6 6-4 success.
The 21-year-old from Canberra fired down 16 aces and, despite a run-in with the umpire in the first set, was able to keep his head and set up a meeting with Holland's Igor Sijsling who came through in straight sets against Romania's Adrian Ungur.
Kyrgios was given a code violation for an outburst aimed in the direction of a ball-boy by umpire Albert Ramos, a decision which seemed harsh at the time and prompted a volley from the Aussie to the chair official.
"A code violation for saying towel loud? Now I've seen it all," Kyrgios argued with Ramos.
"What rules am I breaking? How can you sit there and give me a code for that? But when Djokovic pushes an umpire out of the way that's alright? Tell the whole world that's alright. Unbelievable bias man. Unbelievable bias."
When quizzed in the press conference, Kyrgios explained, his outburst: "If that was me, it would have been a circus. The fact that nothing happened to Djokovic speaks for itself," referring to an incident that saw Djokovic shove an umpire in Rome last week.
"When I get my towel I always say thank-you to the ballboys but sometimes you get mad at them. This time I said it a little louder. You only have 20 seconds between points and I didn't get my towel -- it was a bit rough."
"I think I dealt with it OK. It didn't put me off but it is frustrating. I am an emotional player. Maybe I have to be more patient with them [ball boys]. Maybe some of the kids don't speak English.
"It is what it is. It's not an easy job for the umpires having to concentrate for five sets. All in all, they do a good job."
As far as the match was concerned, the opening two sets saw no breaks of serve, Kyrgios coming through both in tie breaks to continue his fine record in set deciders.
Cecchinato, who returned brilliantly throughout, saved two set points in the first before going down 8-6 in the first tie-break and then wasted two set points of his own in the second before going down by the same scoreline.
A single break of serve was enough for Kyrgios in the final set and he comfortably closed out the third set 6-4 for a place in the second round.
Home favourite Benoit Paire was at his enigmatic best, coming through in five sets on Suzanne-Lenglen Court to beat Moldova's Radu Albot.
The 19th seed took the opening set in routine fashion before Albot battled back to level but Paire looked to be heading for victory when he took the third set 6-4.
However, Albot raced through the fourth 6-1 to level the match before Paire delighted the home crowd by coming through the decider for a 6-2 4-6 6-4 1-6 6-4 victory.
Other winners on day one were Russian pair Teymuraz Gabashvili and Andrey Kuznetsov, both through in straight sets, Gabashvili beating Donald Young and Kuznetsov seeing off Germany's Benjamin Becker.
