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.
Comments