Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard makes confident prediction about Nick Kyrgios after playing against him on his return to tennis

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Nick Kyrgios was unsuccessful on his return to singles action as he lost his Brisbane International opener to Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard.

Frances Tiafoe was excited to play Kyrgios in the second round, but the Australian narrowly missed out on a meeting with the American, who incidentally won his opener.

Kyrgios impressed with Novak Djokovic in their doubles match, with the pair beating Alexander Erler and Andreas Mies in round one.

But that 6-4, 6-7(4), 10-8 victory could not be repeated by Kyrgios against Mpetshi Perricard in the Brisbane International singles.

The rising star dug deep to secure a 7-6(7-2), 6-7(4-7), 7-6(7-3) triumph over the Australian, who has just returned from a lengthy injury lay-off.

Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard makes confident Nick Kyrgios prediction

Kyrgios was playing his first tour-level singles match since his September 2023 wrist surgery, with the home favourite put through a very tough test by his 21-year-old opponent.

But speaking after the match, the Frenchman was full of praise for the Australian, saying in his press conference: “You guys have been very respectful for me.

READ MORE: Nick Kyrgios admits what really surprised him about Novak Djokovic during their first round doubles match in Brisbane

“But playing against Nick, it wasn’t a good match for me. He did some good things during the match and was very confident with a good serve.

“I tried my best during the match but for sure he is going to be back in the next few months. It was very exciting to play this one. Very happy to get the win.”

Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard v Nick Kyrgios serving stats from Brisbane International clash

Mpetshi Perricard took the ATP Tour by storm in 2024, having risen from 205th all the way to 31st in the rankings.

And he certainly has his serving ability to thank for plenty of the success, with only Alexander Zverev (300.3) above Mpetshi Perricard for serve rating (299.5), as per the ATP Tour website.

READ MORE: Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard makes tennis history after his Paris Masters win over Frances Tiafoe

The latter ranks second for % first serve points won (79.7%), and is way ahead of the rest of the competition for average aces per match (19).

Such ability was on show against Kyrgios, with the Frenchman firing 36 aces on his way to victory, with a game of aces served to move 5-4 in the third set.

But he was also deadly from the baseline, with the youngster smashing eight forehand winners in the first set alone.

Sharing insight into his serving, Mpetshi Perricard continued: “We practice a lot on the other stuff. The serve is like 20 minutes of my practice.

“Most of the time it is on my movement. The serve is like naturally. I work on that but not [as much] as the other parts of my game.”