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The Nick Kyrgios rollercoaster arrives in New York for the US Open, and while you can never be quite sure what you will get from the Aussie firebrand, he is favourite to advance from the first round against Alijaz Bedene. Join The Roar for live scores from around 6am (AEST).
Kyrgios has had a mixed year which really seems to be the trend for the Australian right throughout his career.
He has looked strong at each of the grand slams but been knocked out in the third round at Melbourne and Paris, before making the fourth at Wimbledon. Impressive maybe, but not by the standards Kyrgios should be setting himself.
Then there was the fiasco with the Davis Cup and Olympics, which saw him miss a trip to Rio and plenty of usual comments that don’t paint him in the greatest light.
The form for Kyrgios has interestingly enough been a little bit like his year so far – very mixed. He took out the tournament in Atlanta defeating John Isner but went down in the second round to Borna Coric in the second round at Cincinnati.
Essentially, if he gets his serve working and plays a game that is relaxed and measured, he won’t be beaten early in the tournament.
Bedene, ranked 77 in the world has struggled in the lead-up to the US Open choosing to spend most of his time in Europe on clay – and that is a general career path where he has been knocked out of hard court grand slams in the first round five out of six times.
While his winning percentage isn’t atrocious on the hard court, it certainly is well down on that of the clay court and it is something he will need to work on moving forward if he is to ever get to the top of the rankings.
The one tournament he did play in the USA saw him suffer a second round, comprehensive loss to Roberto Bautista-Agut, which isn’t surprising but he needs to improve his level of play to even compete with Kyrgios.
Prediction
Kyrgios shouldn’t lose, but how long and how many sets this takes depends on his mindset. The problem is, the longer it goes on the more likely he is to completely lose his cool.
Watch for an upset if this gets to a fifth set.
Kyrgios in four sets.
Be sure to join The Roar for live scores of this first round match at the US Open from around 6am (AEST) or following the completion of Bernard Tomic and Damir Dzumhur and don’t forget to add a comment below.
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde