Injury plagued Australian cruises into Montreal 2nd round

pulse

August 7, 2017 8:21 PM

A 51-minute outing was just what the doctor ordered for 16th-seeded Kyrgios, who had retired from his three prior matches because of injuries.

Nick Kyrgios hits a return against Viktor Troicki on August 7, 2017 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada

A still-hurting Nick Kyrgios cruised into the second round of the ATP Montreal Masters on Monday with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Viktor Troicki.

"Still in pain, but I played OK today," said Kyrgios, who had quit matches at Queen's Club and Wimbledon with a nagging hip injury then was booed off the court in Washington last week when he retired against 106th-ranked American Tennys Sandgren with right shoulder trouble.

The 22-year-old Australian, ranked 24th in the world, admitted the setbacks have sapped his morale.

"I've been struggling the last couple months with a bunch of things," Kyrgios said. "I wake up, I want to play. And then I wake up and, I don't know, some days I don't.

"I felt good today, obviously. I didn't feel like I hit the ball extremely well. I didn't serve great. I thought I served OK. But he played far from his best tennis," Kyrgios said.

Troicki has struggled of late with injury as well, also retiring from his first-round match at Wimbledon.

"We're kind of in the same boat," Kyrgios said.

Kyrgios broke Troicki twice in each set while never facing a break point. Even so, he needed seven match points to finally put the 45th-ranked Serb away.

Kyrgios's run of injury trouble has derailed what started out as a promising season for a player whose talent has often been overshadowed by his tantrums.

He reached the semi-finals at Marseille, Acapulco and Miami, and notched impressive victories over Novak Djokovic at Marseille and Indian Wells.

But illness forced him out of his scheduled Indian Wells quarter-final against Roger Federer, and he withdrew from Monte Carlo with elbow trouble and Rome with the hip injury that continued to dog him through Wimbledon.

"I'm getting a lot of treatment, trying to do my rehab every day," Kyrgios said. "I'm doing everything I can, I guess."

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