Kyrgios slowly learning to quiet the demons in his head

10:43 AM ET

PARIS — From the moment he took the court in his French Open opener against Italy’s Marco Cecchinato, Nick Kyrgios’ mood seemed as gloomy as the slate gray skies overhead that were occasionally spitting rain and turning the red clay beneath his feet into sandpaper for long parts of the match.

“Do you WANT to be up at 11 in the morning? Wake up!” Kyrgios yelled at himself. “[Bleeping] brain dead!” he berated himself again while walking to his chair during an early changeover, unhappy about a shot he’d just missed.

Kyrgios, a 21-year-old Australian, has a reputation for being combustible. He says he’s trying to work on it. On Sunday, Kyrgios’ ability to keep his word and emotional control through three hotly contested sets against the unseeded Cecchinato was arguably the most impressive part of his eventual 7-6 (6), 7-6 (6), 6-4 win. At one point, Kyrgios was docked a code violation by chair umpire Carlos Ramos for screaming “TOWEL!” at a ball boy at the top of his lungs.

“Now I’ve really seen it all,” Kyrgios complained to Ramos. “The crowd is too loud for [the ball boy] to hear me! You give me a code violation for that?… What rules am I breaking? … I did nothing wrong! “

Kyrgios kept a running dialogue with Ramos for a while after that, directing a few choice cuss words at Ramos that were far worse than “towel.” Ramos easily could have — but didn’t — dock Kyrgios again.

Then again, Kyrgios could’ve easily imploded or gone on a mid-match walkabout for a while, as he has sometimes in the past. But he hung on to win …

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