Aussie bad boys draw first blood in Davis Cup clash
Australia will head into day two of its Davis Cup clash with Slovakia in a commanding position after its two bad boys came good for their country in Sydney.
Nick Kyrgios beat world No.127-ranked Andrej Martin 6-3 6-2 6-4 in the opening singles rubber before Bernard Tomic outclassed world No.123 Jozef Kovalik 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 6-4.
The two straight-set wins mean Sam Groth and John Peers can seal the best-of-five-match World Group playoff tie in today's doubles against Martin and Igor Zelenay.
Kyrgios had more trouble with a nose bleed than Martin in the first match of Australia's bid to retain its place in the 16-team World Group for 2017.
The world No.15 spent much of the final set with a tissue up his left nostril.
"Like, I've got a blocked nose, mate,” he said. "I've got to fix it. I can't play with blood coming out of my nose.
"I mean, I want to play. I don't want to take breaks. It breaks the momentum.”
Kyrgios won the opening set in just 25 minutes despite dropping serve to love in the seventh game.
"It was a great feeling,” he said after securing his first point for Australia in two years.
"I know how important it was to get our team off to a good start. 'Rusty' (Lleyton Hewitt) was trying to keep me engaged the whole time and I thought my performance today was very good mentally.
"I thought I was very professional and I played well.”
After a tight opening set, Tomic coasted to relatively routine victory over Kovalik to improve his tidy Cup record to 17-4.
