Twelve Australian players will be in action on day two of the Australian Open today, including returning star Nick Kyrgios. The 29-year-old Kyrgios will make his first appearance at the Australian Open since 2022, facing world number 86 Jacob Fearnley from the UK. Former tennis player John Millman told the ABC's Catherine Murphy that Kyrgios is going into the match-up confident, despite a lack of recent playtime.
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00:00He hasn't played tennis for the better half of two years, in terms of competitive matches,
00:06so it was really important he come here a bit early and get those competitive practice
00:10sets in.
00:11Now, he wasn't able to do that, but we know to expect the unexpected with Nick.
00:15He's got that big serve, and I didn't see much of a drop-off in Brisbane in terms of
00:18serve speeds there.
00:20If he can roll early and get the crowd behind him, we know he ignites the crowd, especially
00:24here at John Kane Arena over our shoulders.
00:27He can really cause a few upsets.
00:29He's in the right part of the draw, but we can't write off the English hope, Jacob Vanley.
00:34Honestly, I feel a bit sorry for him.
00:37I've been to a Nick Kyrgios match at John Kane Arena.
00:40It got so wild.
00:41It was against Karen Khachanov.
00:43Karen Khachanov ends up smashing all his rackets.
00:45Kids at home, don't smash your rackets.
00:48Never do that.
00:49It was so wild.
00:50How will the brick cope with that?
00:52Look, you've got to control the controllables with him.
00:55If I was him and I was in his position, I'd be really trying to temper the emotions.
01:01I'd be trying to be a bit of a blank wall, not give Nick too much to feed off.
01:05And you've got to accept the fact that the crowd's going to be against you.
01:09Absolutely.
01:10I cannot wait for that one.
01:11Let's talk about Alex de Menor.
01:14He doesn't play until tomorrow, which is great that he has that extra day to prepare.
01:19And he had a big off-season.
01:21He's been busy.
01:22He's got engaged.
01:24How is Alex going?
01:25I think he's in a really good spot in his life.
01:27He's really confident in his abilities right now.
01:29Comes into the tournament as the seed eight, which is the highest he's been.
01:33So that means he doesn't face one of those big boys until the quarterfinals,
01:36who would be Yannick Sinner if he gets to that stage.
01:39He has got a tricky first round match.
01:41He's up against Bottix van der Santschel.
01:43And this is the guy that led the Dutch team to a Davis Cup final last year
01:49and also beat Carlos Alcraz at the US Open in the second round in straight sets.
01:53So on his day, Bottix can play some really good tennis.
01:56He's a baseliner, so he looks to be quite aggressive from about hip height from the baseline.
02:00But Alex, he's an animal here in Australia.
02:03He loves the home crowd support.
02:05I think he's really embracing coming in as the Australian clear number one leader of the Davis Cup team.
02:11My money's on Alex.