Montreal: A still-hurting Nick Kyrgios cruised into the second round of the ATP Montreal Masters on Monday with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Viktor Troicki.
A 51-minute outing was just what the doctor ordered for 16th-seeded Kyrgios, who had retired from his three prior matches because of injuries.
“Still in pain, but I played OK today,” said Kyrgios, who had quit matches at Queen’s Club and Wimbledon with a nagging hip injury then was booed off the court in Washington last week when he retired against 106th-ranked American Tennys Sandgren with right shoulder trouble.
The 22-year-old Australian, ranked 24th in the world, admitted the setbacks have sapped his morale.
“I’ve been struggling the last couple months with a bunch of things,” Kyrgios said. “I wake up, I want to play. And then I wake up and, I don’t know, some days I don’t.
“I felt good today, obviously. I didn’t feel like I hit the ball extremely well. I didn’t serve great. I thought I served OK. But he played far from his best tennis,” Kyrgios said.
Troicki has struggled of late with injury as well, also retiring from his first-round match at Wimbledon.
“We’re kind of in the same boat,” Kyrgios said.
Kyrgios broke Troicki twice in each set while never facing a break point. Even so, he needed seven match points to finally put the 45th-ranked Serb away.
Kyrgios’s run of injury trouble has derailed what started out as a promising season for a player whose talent has often been overshadowed by his tantrums.
He reached the semi-finals at Marseille, Acapulco and Miami, and notched impressive victories over Novak Djokovic at Marseille and Indian Wells.
But illness forced him out of his scheduled Indian Wells quarter-final against Roger Federer, and he withdrew from Monte Carlo with elbow trouble and Rome with the hip injury that continued to dog him through Wimbledon.
“I’m getting a lot of treatment, trying to do my rehab every day,” Kyrgios said. “I’m doing everything I can, I guess.”
Meanwhile, Venus Williams prevailed in a three-setter but French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko and 13th seed Kristina Mladenovic crashed out of the Rogers Cup with first round defeats on Monday.
Williams outlasted a lengthy rain delay and pesky Romanian opponent Irina-Camelia Begu to win her opening match 6-1 3-6 6-3.
Earlier, Mladenovic was swept aside 6-2 6-3 by Czech Barbora Strycova while Ostapenko fell to American Varvara Lepchenko as upsets marked the start of the tournament.
Fan favourite Petra Kvitova, determined to improve following a knife injury to her hand inflicted by an intruder at home, beat Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro 6-1 7-6(5).
The Czech’s six aces and 32 winners were too much for the 28-year-old Navarro, who had no aces and just seven winners.
“I’m feeling pretty tired right now,” said Kvitova, who was trailing 4-1 in the second set before winning the tiebreak.
“I’m trying to come back as soon as possible but it is just a matter of time,” added the 14th seed.
