Miami Gardens (United States) (AFP) – Australian Nick Kyrgios won his first match since 2022 as he fought back from a set down to beat American Mackenzie McDonald 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 at the Miami Open on Wednesday. Kyrgios’s career has been blighted by injuries in the last two years, and he had to retire from his first round match at Indian Wells earlier this month. The flamboyant 29-year-old had suffered pain in his surgically reconstructed right wrist – a procedure that left him on the sidelines for 18 months.
“It has been a long journey, even to just get to the start line of matches and be scared to just finish them,” Kyrgios said. “To come off and get a win and feel like I belong again was special,” he added after the one-hour, 43-minute victory. Kyrgios, the 2022 Wimbledon finalist, has been plagued by injuries in his career, but it was the wrist which caused him the most serious issues, and he said he was deeply pessimistic about his chances of a comeback.
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“I never thought I would play tennis again to be brutally honest with you. I was having conversations with my camp and my team, and I said ‘I don’t know how long I can keep doing this for,'” he said. “This (win) puts some petrol in the tank but I need to be realistic and see how my wrist feels tomorrow because it is a grind out here,” he added.
There was a first round win for 38-year-old Frenchman Gael Monfils who became the second oldest man, after Jimmy Connors, to win at the Miami Open. Monfils beat last year’s quarter-finalist, Hungary’s Fabian Marozsan, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.
In the women’s draw, Emma Raducanu claimed her first win, defeating 19-year-old wild card Sayaka Ishii of Japan 6-2, 6-1 in just 65 minutes. The 2021 US Open champion will face eighth-seeded American Emma Navarro in the second round, her first meeting with a top 10 player since losing to Iga Swiatek in the Australian Open third round.
“It’s going to be an extremely challenging match,” Raducanu said in her on-court interview. “She’s probably in better form, so I can go out and express myself and try and compete for every point.”
American Sofia Kenin won a battle of two former Grand Slam champions when she defeated Czech Petra Kvitova 6-4, 7-5. Kenin will now face compatriot and world number three Coco Gauff in the second round.
© 2024 AFP
