Kyrgios, who retired from his first-round match at Indian Wells this month due to pain in his surgically repaired right wrist, soaked in the moment on Wednesday, looking skyward and taking a deep breath after sealing the win.
“It has been a long journey even to get to the start line of matches and be scared to even be able to finish them,” he told Tennis TV.
“So to come in and get a win and feel like I belong again, it’s pretty special.”
Kyrgios, who had lost all three matches he played this year, got off to a slow start on a hot and humid day in South Florida but after dropping the first set, he began to settle in, finding his rhythm on serve to level the contest.
In the decider, he hit a well-disguised drop shot to set up a break point and converted when his American opponent double-faulted to hand Kyrgios a 4-3 lead.
From there he rode his best shot, his booming serve, to the finish line.
Next up for Kyrgios is Russian Karen Khachanov, who stunned the Australian in a hard-fought quarter-final at the 2022 US Open, a tournament Kyrgios was among the favourites to win that year.
Soon after that bitter disappointment he would take a lengthy break from the court to tend to a series of knee, foot and wrist problems that threatened to permanently derail the 29-year-old’s career before returning to the tour this year.
Frenchman Gael Monfils, Belgian David Goffin, and Russian-born Kazakhstani Alexander Bublik were among the players who also advanced out of the first round with wins on Wednesday.
On the women’s side, former US Open champion Emma Raducanu barely broke a sweat as she brushed aside Japanese wild card Sayaka Ishii 6-2 6-1 to reach the second round.
Raducanu, who was ousted in the first round at Indian Wells, regained her footing against Ishii as she won 77 percent of her first-serve points, fired down six aces and converted five of her six break point chances in the 65-minute match.
Up next for Britain’s Raducanu will be American world number 10 Emma Navarro, who won a WTA 500 event in Mexico in early March for her second career title before losing in the third round at Indian Wells.
In other women’s action Belinda Bencic, fresh off a run to the quarter-finals at Indian Wells, overcame a 5-3 third-set deficit to beat Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska on Grandstand.
The Swiss former world number four gave birth to her daughter Bella in April and won her first WTA title as a mother when she triumphed at the WTA 500 event in Abu Dhabi last month.
Twice Grand Slam winner Victoria Azarenka strolled into the second round with a 6-3 6-1 victory over Ukrainian wild card Anhelina Kalinina in the evening session at Hard Rock Stadium. (Reuters)
