Bernard Tomic and Samantha Stosur have joined fellow big gun Nick Kyrgios in the second round in a flying start for Australians at Wimbledon.
Tomic rallied for a spirited 6-3 3-6 2-6 6-2 6-3 win over big-hitting German Jan-Lennard Struff, while Stosur outclassed Montenegro’s Danka Kovinic 6-4 6-4 after Kyrgios blasted past Diego Schwartzman 6-0 6-2 7-6 (8-6) earlier on Monday.
Matt Ebden gave Australia four players in the second round with a 6-2 6-1 6-4 success against Slovenian qualifier Blaz Rola.
But teenager Thanasi Kokkinakis and struggling Marinko Matosevic crashed out on the opening day of the championships.
Argentina’s 24th seed Leonardo Mayer ousted a gallant Kokkinakis 7-6 (9-7) 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 in a punishing three-hour three-set encounter.
Matosevic blew a two-set advantage against British wildcard Liam Broady.
The 5-7 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-3 capitulation was Matosevic’s 11th straight defeat and he faces the grim prospect of falling out of the world’s top 150 after the tournament.
Kyrgios could not have made a hotter start to his championships.
He took the first set in just 17 minutes and, after conjuring more break points in the first game of the second set, 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 following a split 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.
“I came out strongly. I haven’t played too much tennis lately. I’ve been sick,” Kyrgios said.
“But it’s great to be back on the grass. I barely missed a ball for the first two sets and I’m going to gain so much confidence out of that third set. I had to dig deep.”
Kyrgios said he’d been battling a sinus infection, but that it was “under control now”.
Kyrgios, Kokkinakis, Stosur and Lleyton Hewitt are among 11 Australians in action on Monday.