The Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne Park is packed with fans on Thursday as local boy Nick Kyrgios takes on world no.2 Daniil Medvedev. The duo faced each other twice before and Kyrgios is one of the few players to maintain a positive head-to-head record against the Russian.

Kyrgios, who is a king at John Cain Arena, had to initially adjust to the not-so-loud fans in Rod Laver as he tried to bring fans to his support by hitting some trademark shots. As soon as Kyrgios pulls fans to his side, Medvedev readily silenced them with an ace on his first serve.

Nick Kyrgios finds himself under pressure from Medvedev, argues with the umpire at Australian Open

The Australian lost one of his early service games and initially looked out of rhythm before bouncing back in an emphatic fashion to level the first set. However, Kyrgios was repeatedly unsettling himself by arguing with the umpire, talking to the crowd during his serve. It clearly indicates that the Aussie was feeling the pressure due to a clear return game strategy from Medvedev.

During one of changeovers, Kyrgios could be seen arguing with the umpire for starting the clock too fast.

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“Don’t forget, this match is about me and him, yeah. Don’t ruin it by putting the clock too fast”.

Having leveled the game at 4-4 in the first set, Kyrgios was under pressure from the Russian’s almost-perfect return game as the former created few distractions to find the momentum back.

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Earlier in the set, Kyrgios was also seen complaining to Bernandes over the towel situation. Apparently, towels weren’t served right at the start and they came after three games were played. Point to note here is that the Australian lost his serve in the third game and complained to Bernandes during that changeover.

Whenever Kyrgios steps on to a tennis court, he makes sure the crowd is definitely getting their bucks worth with his casual style of play as he currently exhibits the same to disrupt Medvedev’s momentum at Rod Laver Arena. The first set reached the tie-breaker as Medvedev displayed great composure to clinch it, 7-6(1).

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