Nick Kyrgios will head to Roland Garros short on claycourt match practice following a second-round defeat in Lyon to Argentine Nicolas Kicker.
Lyon, France, 24 May 2017 | AAP
Kyrgios lost his opener 2-6 6-4 6-2 to Argentine Nicolas Kicker from a position in which he appeared to be cruising on Tuesday.
The Australian fourth seed and world No.19 ripped through the opening set, serving six aces to blast the 24-year-old qualifier off the court.
Kyrgios was still cruising at 4-4 in the second set – even with an uncustomary four double faults at that stage – before it all went awry.
Kicker made a couple of shots and in a blink-and-you-missed-it moment Kyrgios netted a second serve to drop the second set.
In the third set, Kicker duly passed the Canberran – who looked compromised in his movement – and from there ran away with the match as Kyrgios picked up a code violation.
Aside from the serving woes that dogged Kyrgios throughout, Kicker repeatedly tested out his movement and recent hip injury with drop shots and won many points when the 22-year-old Australian was at the net.
The win set Kicker up for a quarter-final with Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili, who beat Italian veteran Andreas Seppi 6-4 6-4.
While Kyrgios had difficulties there were none of those for Argentine sixth seed Juan Martin del Potro, who advanced to the second round with a 7-5 6-4 win over Frenchman Quentin Halys.
Original author: Matt Trollope