Masur: Kyrgios a threat at Roland Garros

Despite having achieved his best results on faster surfaces, Nick Kyrgios is a genuine threat at Roland Garros.

That’s the opinion of Wally Masur, Australia’s Davis Cup captain in 2015 who has seen first-hand the level the Aussie No.1 can produce regardless of the surface.

Outside of prohibitive favourite Rafael Nadal, the French Open draw is relatively open, with reigning Australian Open champion Roger Federer skipping the event and top-ranked duo Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic failing to fire in the first half of 2017.

The opportunity is ripe for an emerging player to make a run – as seen with Alexander Zverev’s recent victory at the Rome Masters – and Masur believes Kyrgios is a contender to do some damage in Paris when the tournament kicks off later this week.

“I think when you serve that well, and it’s a bit like (Mark) Philippoussis isn’t it, you can play on anything. Because you are just pretty much holding 50 per cent of your games somewhat comfortably,” Masur said.

“Nick’s obviously got firepower from the back of the court. And he actually moves pretty well on clay – he slides and he’s balanced, which (can sometimes be) quite of a problem for Australian players if they don’t play much on it.

“Also Nick’s tall, and when you look at the height of the bounce at Roland Garros, (this) is not problematic (for him). His grips, certainly on the forehand side, are suited to a higher ball.

“So yeah he can play on clay, no doubt about it.”

Kyrgios comes into the tournament under an injury cloud, with a hip problem compromising his play in Madrid and forcing his withdrawal from Rome.

But when healthy, the Canberran is a force on the red dirt, having reached the Estoril final in 2015, scoring wins over top-five stars Federer and Stan Wawrinka in consecutive years in Madrid and pushing Nadal in a torrid three-setter in the third round in Rome last year.

Kyrgios is perhaps more focused this year on Wimbledon, which he frequently says best rewards his weapons and offers him the most realistic chance of Grand Slam glory.

Federer has taken this approach one step further, skipping Roland Garros entirely to focus on being fresh for what could be an eighth title run at the All England Club.

Yet Masur did not believe that having an eye on Wimbledon a few weeks later would dull Kyrgios’ motivation or intensity when he arrived in the French capital.

“I would suggest you just have to go at everything 100 per cent. As good as Nick and Roger are, if you’re holding something back in reserve, if you lose 5-10 per cent of what you’ve got, you lose a lot,” Masur said.

“You look at the nature of the tour and there’s a lot of good claycourters – you could take (into consideration) a guy like Pablo Cuevas, or lots of other claycourters, and they’re just dangerous.

“So for guys like Nick and Roger, they’ve got to be at their best to make sure they can beat those guys.

“(If) you enter a Slam that’s best-of-five sets on clay, you’d better be ready.”