Australian maverick Nick Kyrgios ‘extremely confident’ going into Wimbledon

Just what the tournament needed on opening day. Ying and Yang. Fire and ice. The princely champion Novak Djokovic returns to Wimbledon’s traditional pageant on the court where he won last year; while Nick Kyrgios, the central casting villain, will be kicking up dirt on court number one.

Polite applause for the champion with all of centre court’s felicitations and just an outside grass court distance away, a crowd will arrive hungry for the spit and venom of the drama king from Australia, irritating ulcers and sensibilities like nobody since John McEnroe.

Kyrgios made last year’s final taking the easier route, when Rafa Nadal was forced to pull out at the semi-final stage following an abdominal tear during his mammoth quarter-final with American Taylor Fritz.

Injury again precludes the Spaniard from adding to his 22 Grand Slam titles (two won at Wimbledon), while Kyrgios declared himself fit after this year’s long injury lay-off but said he was “almost dreading” his return to tennis.

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Now 28 years old he pulled out of the Australian Open on the eve of the tournament, announcing he needed surgery on his knee, and he has played only one match since and that was last month in Stuttgart. Despite his serve being a weapon, he has been handed a tricky opener against David Goffin, who reached the quarter-finals last year.

“I’m extremely confident,” said Kyrgios. “I’ve never been a player that needs a lot of matches before playing a Grand Slam. I’ve always been kind of on the side of not playing too much. What I’ve achieved in my career never leaves. Last year, it wasn’t that long ago really. I feel like I’m still serving as good as ever. I’m still able to beat a lot of people on the court.”

Djokovic, seeking his 24th Grand Slam, faces Argentina’s Pedro Cachin, ranked 67 in the world. Cachin won four challenger titles in 2022, in a season that also marked his Grand Slam debut. His exploits in 2022 gave him a career-high ranking of 54. But this is his Wimbledon debut and that’s a lot to unpack against the best player in the world, although not ranked the highest, with the defending champion seeded two.

Following Djokovic is veteran Venus Williams, who takes on Elina Svitolina. Williams at 43 years old and ranked 554 is here for the participation medal, although that’s not how she will see it. Nobody will begrudge her the hit-out with the last of her five Wimbledon wins coming in 2008, while her Ukraine opponent has never won but made the semi-final in 2019.

Italian Jannik Sinner closes the day on centre court. After winning a national championship in skiing at age eight, Sinner switched his focus to tennis at age 13 and moved from the north of Italy to the Italian Riviera to train. He began playing in professional events at age 16 and has worked his way to ninth seed and has made quarter-finals in all four Grand Slams. Sinner faces Juan Manuel Cerundolo, who has a ranking outside the top 100.

Poland’s Iga Swiatek, winner at Roland Garros a few weeks ago and the top women’s player, opens her account in the first match on court number one. She meets China’s Lin Zhu, ranked 33 in the world. Swiatek, one of the more outspoken players about Russian and Belarussian inclusion in the draw, is here to prove she’s no longer a work in progress on the grass.

The four-time Grand Slam winner has been the outstanding player over the past three years but has yet to make a quarter-final in London. Last year she came into the tournament on an amazing 135-day, 37-match unbeaten streak, which came to an end in the third round. She has business here this year.

“Last year I felt a lot of pressure here because I was number one,” she said on Saturday. “I don’t know. I feel like this time, this is the first year where I could just focus on practicing, actually learning a lot. So hopefully I’m going to be able to use that in my matches.

“Last year when I didn’t play any matches before Wimbledon, it was hard to use my intuition because there was pressure. I felt like I’m playing a Grand Slam, and I played so well in Roland Garros that I should play well here as well. But it’s different [this year]. This year I feel like I’ve done a little bit more than for the past years.”

Kyrgios is on after Swiatek on court one with American seventh seed Coco Gauff in for the evening session against compatriot Sofia Kenin. Gauf has been the coming American player for a few years and she is still just 19 years old. More Cocomania is ahead but maybe they will be looking for the finish line this year.