Kyrgios and Paire advance in Moscow, Gulbis wins in Stockholm

You never know what to expect from Nick Kyrgios, Benoit Paire, and Ernests Gulbis on any given day. Tuesday turned out to be a good one for all three.

Kyrgios and Paire won their Kremlin Cup openers, while Gulbis advanced to round two of the Stockholm Open.

The toughest test was presented to Kyrgios, which was not unexpected based on the draw. He had to go up against Russia’s own Andrey Rublev right away in Moscow, and the result was a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win for the 23-year-old Australian. Kyrgios, who fired 25 aces while serving at 71 percent, appreciated the crowd support he got throughout the match even though he was facing an opponent from the host nation.

“I was surprised that the public cheered me here,” the No. 5 seed said. “It’s nice. Normally when I’m not at home I’m not the most loved person, but it was nice to hear some cheering. I felt almost at home here…. I love to play indoors.”

“[I] played a lot with Andrey in juniors,” Kyrgios added. “He’s going to have a great career.”

Paire joined Kyrgios in the last 16 with a 7-6 (6), 2-6, 6-1 victory over Mischa Zverev. The Frenchman served at a dreadful 44 percent and double-faulted five times, but he benefited from seven double-faults off the Zverev racket and broke the left-handed German three times. Paire was pleased with his performance despite plenty of poor statistics.

“It was a good match,” he commented. “I wasn’t doing well at the beginning but then I got much better.”

Gulbis was good from start to finish on Tuesday in Stockholm, where it has already been an especially productive week for him. The Latvian qualified to get into the main draw and parlayed that success into a 6-4, 6-3 defeat of Swedish wild card Mikael Ymer. Gulbis fought off all six of the break points he faced while prevailing in one hour and 49 minutes.

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