Australia’s Nick Kyrgios has recovered from a slow start to beat American Mackenzie McDonald in the first round of the Miami Open. Kyrgios dropped the opening set before storming home to win 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Wednesday.
The win was his first in a tour-level match since 2022 and sets up a second-round encounter with Russian Karen Khachanov. The Australian said he is glad to be back but will not be getting carried away.
“To come off and get a win and feel like I belong again was special,” he said. “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’. 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.”
The 2022 Wimbledon finalist, who once reached 13 in the ATP Tour rankings, currently sits at 892. He came into the Miami tournament after an early exit at Indian Wells where he retired hurt in his opening match.
The Australian was losing 7-6, 3-0 to Botic van de Zandschulp before quitting with a wrist injury.
The win also comes after the Australian was named as one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed by the Professional Tennis Players’ Association against the sport’s governing bodies, accusing them of anti-competitive practices and a disregard for player welfare.
The PTPA, an independent players’ union co-founded by Novak Djokovic and Vasek Pospisil in 2019 says after years of good-faith efforts to reform professional tennis, it has been forced to take legal action to end “monopolistic control” of the sport.
Twelve current and former players, including Djokovic, Pospisil and Kyrgios, are listed as plaintiffs along with the PTPA.
In the women’s tournament in Miami, Kim Birrell is the last Australian woman left standing after the ever improving national No 1 saved a match point en route to a resilient opening-round victory over Anastasia Potapova.
With Ajla Tomljanovic getting knocked out by US qualifier Bernarda Pera, Queensland-based Birrell, who has risen to her highest ever ranking of 68, is left flying the flag in the women’s draw after another notable win against a player ranked 30 places above her.
Birrell, who had to qualify to get into a third successive WTA 1000 main draw, defeated Potapova for the second time in two months after defeating the Russian in the Brisbane International in straight sets in January en route to her first WTA 500 quarter-final.
Wednesday’s win, though, was a much more tortuous affair, as the 26-year-old had to battle back from a set down, then a match point down, before finally outstaying Potapova 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) after two hours 23 minutes.
It set up a tough second-round meeting for Birrell with 22-year-old Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, the No 23 seed, and she will need to do better than serving up the nine double faults that made life so difficult against Potapova.
