The Nick Kyrgios show landed in Atlanta with a bang. After pulling out with an abdominal injury in the third round of Wimbledon against Auger-Aliassime, Kyrgios showed no signs of rust in a clinical and business-like win against former top 10 and Wimbledon finalist Kevin Anderson.

Anderson was coming from a win at Newport last week. Unfortunately for him, he ran into a Nick Kyrgios that left off where he started. Of course, it was not all business for Nick. He showed us a new tweener serve in the first set and impressed the crowd with a twirl baseline tweener in the second. Other than that, Nick never let Anderson into the match, closing him out with an ace.

Kyrgios now faces Cameron Norrie in the next round. That should be the toughest test until the final, where we could meet rising talent Jannick Sinner. He could very well pick up this title and then head to defend his Washington D.C. title next week. In Washington, Nadal awaits. There’s a very real possibility he could meet Nadal in an early round, especially given the fact Nick’s low ranking won’t allow him a decent seeding. However, if he gets a good draw, and makes it through some rounds, there’s no reason why he shouldn’t be at the later stages of the Washington D.C. tournament. Lots of solid match play will help both his game and confidence as he heads into Masters 1000 tournaments in Toronto and Cincinnati. From there it’s the US Open.

Given what we saw last night in his opening match against Anderson, one gets the feeling that Nick has matured as a player and is thinking about getting himself in the best position to not only win tournaments but accumulate enough points to merit a seed at the US Open. That would be a good strategy. The last thing he wants is not to be seeded and having to deal with a top player such as Djokovic or Nadal in the very first round. One thing is certain, the summer hardcourt swing will be a lot more exciting with Nick than without.

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