Two-time champion Andy Murray has challenged Nick Kyrgios to come armed with the necessary mental steel when Australia’s great white hope launches his Wimbledon campaign.
Murray, who himself pulled out of the tournament on Sunday, anointed Kyrgios as a legitimate title contender, acknowledging that anyone able to rocket down 98 aces in four matches at Queen’s loomed as a serious threat.
But the Scot believes Kyrgios’s supersonic serve can only carry him so far and says the explosive talent must keep his head in order to vie for tennis’s greatest prize.
“In the two matches after he played me, I think he served over 30 aces in back-to-back matches. It’s incredible to be able to do that nowadays because the courts are not unbelievably fast,” Murray said before himself withdrawing on Sunday with a hip injury.
“He’s not just doing that on his first serve. He’s hitting huge second serves as well.
“If he’s able to focus for three, four hours at a time, do it over the space of two weeks, there’s no reason why he can’t compete if you’re getting that many free points with your serve.
“They’re just aces. So 30 aces, let’s say in a two-set match, 24 points to win a set, that’s not including the ones that guys just touch and get a racquet on.
“You don’t actually have to win that many points and play that many long rallies and stuff.
“There’s no reason why he couldn’t have a really good run here. But the mental side of the game is huge and extremely important. He needs to prove that.”
Kyrgios’s deadly delivery is unquestionably one of the most feared weapons in tennis and will be even more potent in the heatwave conditions forecast for London over the coming fortnight.
“I guess it’s the confidence and the rhythm,” Kyrgios said when asked about his prime asset.
“If I can get my rhythm early with my serve, I feel like I can hit any spot on the court and I mean I just have confidence in it.
“It’s won me so many matches. It’s my best shot. I can control everything about it.”
A quarter-finalist on debut at The All England Club in 2014 before venturing to the last 16 the next two years, Kyrgios plays Denis Istomin in his opener.
“Istomin’s dangerous. He’s beaten Novak before in a major, which is incredibly tough to do,” Kyrgios said.
“I know that I’ve got a big challenge ahead of me, but I feel like I’ve played a lot of tough matches coming into Wimbledon.
“I feel ready, probably one of the best preparations I had.”
