Australia's highest-ranked player Nick Kyrgios has made a successful return to the court with a straight sets victory in the opening round of the ATP 1000 Masters tournament at Indian Wells.
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In his first match since an injury-enforced break after the Australian Open in January, Kyrgios was largely untroubled in defeating American wildcard Denis Kudla 6-4 7-5 in straight sets on Saturday.
Kyrgios, ranked 37th in the world, will face a much tougher ask in the next round when he takes on 11th seed Grigor Dimitrov, who had a bye in the opening round.
The 19-year-old Canberran got off to a brilliant start to this year, reaching the quarter-finals of the Australian Open before losing to Andy Murray.
However, Kyrgios took time off to recover from a back injury after the year's first major and missed Australia's Davis Cup tie against the Czech Republic earlier this month.
His trademark big serve was on show against Kudla, serving 11 aces to have the 131st-ranked American on the back foot.
Kyrgios didn't drop his serve the entire match and was only forced to save one break point.
He made the most of his opportunities to serve out the match in 68 minutes to progress to the next round.
