Loading<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was actually, like, a delusion. I genuinely thought I was the best player in the world [and] I genuinely thought I was unbeatable. Like, I\u2019d go out on court, and I thought no one can genuinely beat me. You actually have that confidence and a delusion that you are that person.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter you have these surgeries \u2026 you don\u2019t have that belief anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kyrgios and Kokkinakis will be back on court together on Wednesday \u2013 but the former world No.13\u2019s next singles appearance will be at the Kooyong Classic, which returns after a one-year hiatus.<\/p>\n
Kyrgios has spoken with Australian Open tournament boss Craig Tiley about a wildcard, but wanted to see how Brisbane went before accepting anything.<\/p>\n
Barring injury, Kyrgios expects to play at Melbourne Park for an 11th time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a stepping stone. I actually just spoke to [Daniil] Medvedev in the locker room, and he\u2019s just like, \u2018Look, when you play one match every now and then, it\u2019s not going to be the way you want it all the time\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as I feel good [I will play the Australian Open]. That\u2019s my goal, obviously, and not just AO \u2013 whatever this year holds, I do want to continue to play as much as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Armed with a single-handed backhand and good pop off his racquet for someone only six-feet tall, Kovacevic had little trouble holding serve against Kyrgios.<\/p>\n
In fact, neither player did until the Australian faltered from 30-0 then 40-30 in the eighth game of the opening set, sealing his fate when he fluffed a routine volley on top of the net.<\/p>\n
In the same game, Kyrgios grimaced as he grabbed at his right arm, then shook it, after delivering a fault on game point. The people running the on-court cameras felt it was significant enough to replay the moment shortly afterwards on the big screen at Pat Rafter Arena.<\/p>\n
Kyrgios, whose movement was sluggish at times, said post-match that his arm was fine, and he was just adjusting to playing again.<\/p>\n
Kovacevic, who lost just one of his 26 first-serve points for the match, did not give Kyrgios a look-in as he quickly went a set up.<\/p>\n
Both players breezed through their service games to four-all in the second set before Kyrgios stumbled again.<\/p>\n
Kovacevic had some fortune when his return clipped the net and dropped over for a winner to set up match point, only for Kyrgios to recklessly flay a forehand into the net. The American completed a dominant serving performance with ease to move into the second round.<\/p>\n
Loading<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last month I\u2019ve had has been very eventful and a lot of fun [playing exhibition matches in India, United Arab Emirates and United States],\u201d Kyrgios said.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, the result wasn\u2019t how I wanted to go today. I feel like the journey I\u2019ve had with the Australian media and public hasn\u2019t always been amazing, but I feel like now towards this part of my career, every time I walk out there, it\u2019s always a lot of fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely felt a lot of love out there, and especially when these young kids and stuff were chanting and enjoying their time out there. I feel as if I\u2019m giving them a good show.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Loading \u201cThere was actually, like, a delusion. I genuinely thought I was the best player in the world…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-395763","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}