Kyrgios wins first match on clay in years against McDonald in Houston

It's well understood that Nick Kyrgios does not enjoy playing on clay but for the sake of fans he elected to do it anyway and he proved victorious against McDonald 4-6 6-3 6-4.

In his first match on clay in years, Kyrgios obviously had some issues taking time to really adjust to the surface. McDonald was simply a bit more comfortable overall and patiently waited for a poor game from Kyrgios and he got it. Taking a break midway through the set, the American cruised to finish it off with 6-4. It was far from bad from Kyrgios but his movement was a bit lacking giving McDonald too many looks.

That improved moving forward but neither played particularly well in the 2nd set. There was quite a few chances for both early in the 2nd set but Kyrgio was the one that emerged with a lead after that. Kyrgios settled in a nice rhythm after that holding his serve rather easily. He almost added another break but McDonald held firm for the respectable 3-6 scoreline in the end.

The final set featured the best of Kyrgios in the entire match as he immediately broke McDonald in the first game of the set. He never really looked back as his serve clicked and from there it was quite straightforward. McDonald made most of his money today on the 2nd serve and once Kyrgios started hitting great serves, those looks disappeared. He finished it off with 6-4.