Australia's youngsters endured a mixed day at the Toronto Masters, with Nick Kyrgios setting up a second-round clash with Andy Murray but Bernard Tomic bowed out in his opening match.
Kyrgios beat Colombia's Santiago Giraldo 7-6 (7-3) 7-5 on Tuesday in his first match since reaching the Wimbledon quarter-finals with a win over Rafael Nadal.
The 19-year-old, making his Masters 1000 career debut, backed up his growing big-match reputation with the 94-minute win over Giraldo.
The world No.72 has risen more than 100 ranking places in the past month-and-a-half and is the only teenager inside the top 100.
He equalled his season record at the ATP level to 6-6 with the victory.
Kyrgios played fearless tennis as he trailed the more experienced Giraldo 5-2 in the opening set, with the wild card winning the opener in a tiebreak.
He claimed victory on his third match point in the second set after breaking the South American in the final game.
"(It was my) first match back so I knew it was going to be tough," said Kyrgios.
"I came out a bit flat.
"I thought I hung in well. I played the big points pretty well, I'm relatively happy."
Kyrgios said that taking on Murray would be another huge challenge.
"He's a great player, and I'm just going to go out there and just enjoy the experience to get to play another player like that," he said.
"I definitely go into the match feeling like I've got a chance and I'm going to get some opportunities.
"But it's going to be one of the toughest matches I have ever played, so I have just got to be ready for it."
The Wednesday showdown will also be a huge test for Murray, whose game has gone off the boil this season as he tries to regain his top form after back surgery 10 months ago.
The 10th-ranked Scot, who got a first-round bye, has not played since he saw his hopes of defending his Wimbledon title dashed in a quarter-final defeat to Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.
Meanwhile Tomic failed to advance to the second round, falling to power-serving Ivo Karlovic in three sets.
In a near-identical score to their Claro Open final in Bogota three weeks ago, won by Tomic, the contest was decided in a final-set tiebreak - only this time it was Karlovic who prevailed 3-6 7-6 (5) 7-6 (6).
While Tomic saved several match points, the Croat's 30 aces proved the difference in the end.
Day two play began three hours late due to rain.
Roger Federer cruised into the third round after defeating Peter Polansky 6-2 6-0, while Latvian 11th seed Ernests Gulbis began his US Open tune-up campaign with a defeat of Portugal's Joao Sousa 6-3 6-4.
In some of the day's other matches, Italian Andreas Seppi beat Canadian Brayden Schnur, Frenchman Richard Gasquet toppled Canada's Vasek Pospisil, Mikhail Youzhny of Russia went down to 16th seed Fabio Fognini, and Gael Monfils got the better of Radek Stepanek.
Share
