Kyrgios races into Wimbledon second round

Nick Kyrgios has made a blazing start to his Wimbledon campaign, advancing to the second round in just over an hour.

Kyrgios blasted past Argentine Diego Schwartzman 6-0 6-2 7-6 (8-6) in just 84 minutes to give Australia a flying start to the championships.

At one point, after taking the opening set in 17 minutes and conjuring more break points in the first game of the second set, Kyrgios threatened to emulate countryman Todd Woodbridge’s triple bagel win over Johan Ortegren in Wimbledon qualifying in 2001.

But the South American held serve to finally get on the scoreboard before Kyrgios resumed his first-round cakewalk.

A quarter-finalist last year ranked 144th in the world, Kyrgios is seeded 26th and rated by four-times champion John McEnroe as a title smokey in 2015.

The 20-year-old next faces either Juan Monaco or Florian Mayer on Wednesday after dispelling any doubts about his capacity to deliver after splitting with his coach on the tournament eve.

Kyrgios at times toyed with Schwartzman, dazzling fans with a deadly mix of deft touch and awesome firepower.

The two-time grand slam quarter-finalist took exception last week to criticism of his game management, but he showed great composure not to unravel after engaging in a dispute with the chair umpire and falling behind 4-2 in the third set.

Kyrgios told Mohamed Lahyani – the Swede who presided over John Isner’s epic 11-hour win over Nicolas Mahut in 2010 – “I’m not playing” and demanded a rules official come to court two after an unfavourable line call put him down double break point.

“No, no, no. That’s not the rules. I will sit down here and wait until whenever he comes,” Kyrgios said, demanding a replay of the point.

But he played on, dropped serve and then broke back immediately before taking the match in a third-set tiebreaker.

Kyrgios, Lleyton Hewitt, Thanasi Kokkinakis and Samantha Stosur are among 11 Australians in action on Monday.

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