17-year-old Nick Kyrgios from the ACT has restored some local pride at the Australian Open.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Kyrgios, favourite for the Australian Open junior boys\u2019 championship currently being played at Melbourne Park, will be elevated to world No.1 junior.<\/p>\n
Inspired by Roger Federer and modelling his game on Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Kyrgios backed up his success at last week\u2019s prestigious Open lead-up event at Traralgon with an ominous first-round win in Melbourne.<\/p>\n
The powerhouse third seed crushed Turkey\u2019s Cem Ilkel 6-3 6-1 to lead several Australian juniors into the second round.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously there was a lot of expectation on my performance this week and I thought I started off well,\u201d Kyrgios said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of pressure but going on last week I\u2019ve got a lot of confidence and belief in my game now, so I\u2019m really glad my form\u2019s there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get the No.1 ranking tomorrow so possibly winning the whole thing would be my main goal now.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019m just trying to not think about that yet, take it one match at a time, get through these early rounds first and, hopefully if I get far enough, then I can start thinking about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kyrgios said reaching the summit was the reward for four years of hard work and devotion to the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously it\u2019s a great accomplishment. There\u2019s been some really good players that have been the No.1 junior,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Kyrgios last year completed the French Open-Wimbledon junior doubles double with Victorian Andrew Harris.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s where my serve started to really kick on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been getting a lot of confidence from that and my transitioning into the net has gotten a lot better in singles as well, not being so afraid at hitting the ball and coming to the net.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really confident coming to the net now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kyrgios, who is hoping to follow in the footsteps of countryman Bernard Tomic (2009) and Luke Saville (2012) as an Open junior champion, said Federer and Tsonga were his heroes.<\/p>\n
\u201cFederer, he\u2019s an unbelievable role model,\u201d Kyrgios said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, he\u2019s got a lot of expectations on him every match and he just goes out there every match and does what he has to do. Unbelievable.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut my favourite player is probably Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. I sort of model my game around his a bit \u2013 a really big serve and I try to dictate with my forehand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other Australian first-round junior winners included Kyrgios\u2019 latest doubles partner, Thanasi Kokkinakis, along with Marc Polmans, Akira Santillan, Oliver Anderson, Omar Jasika, Danielle Wagland and Olivia Tjandramulia.<\/p>\n
Sara Tomic, the 14-year-old sister of Bernard, will play her second-round match on Monday.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how the Aussies fared in the first round:<\/p>\n
Boys\u2019 Singles<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Oliver Anderson defeated Brayden Schnur (CAN) 2-6 6-0 7-5<\/p>\n Jacob Grills lost to Duck Hee Lee (KOR) 4-6 6-7(4)<\/p>\n Jay Andrijic lost to (8) Filippo Baldi (ITA) 4-6 2-6<\/p>\n (3) Nick Kyrgios defeated Cem Ilkel (TUR) 6-3 6-1<\/strong><\/p>\n Omar Jasika defeated (15) Seong Chan Hong (KOR) 3-6 6-4 6-1<\/strong><\/p>\n Daniel Guccione lost to (10) Maximilian Marterer (GER) 4-6 4-6<\/p>\n Harry Bourchier lost to (7) Wayne Montgomery (RSA) 6-7(4) 6-1 7-9<\/p>\n Jake Delaney lost to Hyeon Chung (KOR) (6) 1-6 2-6<\/p>\n Marc Polmans defeated Nicolas Charry (CHI) 6-2 6-4<\/strong><\/p>\n Akira Santillan defeated Mazen Osama (EGY) 6-1 6-2<\/strong><\/p>\n Blake Mott lost to Enzo Couacaud (FRA) 1-6 3-6<\/p>\n Thanasi Kokkinakis defeated (12) Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (USA) 7-5 6-4<\/strong><\/p>\n Bradley Mousley lost to (2) Gianluigi Quinzi (ITA) 4-6 0-6<\/p>\n Girls\u2019 Singles<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Danielle Wagland defeated Xiaodi You (CHN) 3-6 7-5 7-5<\/strong><\/p>\n Eliza Long lost to Katherine Ip (HKG) 2-6 6-7(4)<\/p>\n Kimberly Birrell lost to Rebecca Peterson (SWE) 3-6 1-6<\/p>\n Ellen Perez lost to (3) Ana Konjuh (CRO) 3-6 4-6<\/p>\n Stefani Stojic lost to Shilin Xu (CHN) 4-6 6-2 7-9<\/p>\n Naiktha Bains lost to Olga Fridman (UKR) 6-2 2-6 8-10<\/p>\n Brooke Rischbieth lost to (6) Carol Zhao (CAN) 6-4 5-6 4-6<\/p>\n Lizette Cabrera lost to Natalia Vajdova (SVK) 2-6 2-6<\/p>\n Priscilla Hon lost to Ziyue Sun (CHN) 6-4 1-6 0-6<\/p>\n Sara Tomic defeated Gabriela Pantuckova (CZE) 2-6 6-2 6-4<\/strong><\/p>\n Belinda Woolcock lost to (5) Ching-Wen Hsu (TPE) 1-6 6-4 3-6<\/p>\n Zoe Hives lost to Sandra Samir (EGY) 5-7 6-2 1-6<\/p>\n Olivia Tjandramulia defeated Emily Fanning (NZL) 6-3 6-3<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 17-year-old Nick Kyrgios from the ACT has restored some local pride at the Australian Open. On Monday, Kyrgios, favourite for the Australian Open junior boys\u2019 championship currently being played at Melbourne Park, will be elevated to world No.1 junior. Inspired by Roger Federer and modelling his game on Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Kyrgios backed up his success […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5910,"featured_media":4854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5910"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}