Copyright © 2016. No duplication is permitted without permission from Bob Larson Tennis.

Nick Kyrgios underlined his reputation as one of the rising stars on men’s tennis by shrugging off jet lag and the effects of a trans-continental switch from winning his first ATP World Tour title at the Open 13 Provence in Marseille, by extending his winning run at the Dubai Duty Free Championships.

The 20 year-old Australian had minimal time to acclimatize to much warmer outdoor conditions and a faster court but he still was able to recover from a sluggish start to beat seventh seeded Martin Klizan who was also playing on the back of tournament win in Rotterdam.

“I’m happy I got through because I wasn’t feeling great out there,” said Kyrgios who beat Klizan 3-6,6-3,6-2 and now goes forward to meet the Kazakhstani Mikhail Kukishkin. “I was actually pretty excited to get here and play but obviously coming off the flights, it was physically tough. It was really fast and the ball was flying a lot. For me it was completely opposite conditions to what I played last week.”

The unseeded Australian did not even sit down at changeovers in the first set. “I wasn’t really thinking that well out there,” he admitted. “I probably just wanted to get the game going, I guess.”

Kyrgios knows as soon as he finishes in Dubai, he faces another long flight to link up with the Australian Davis Cup team under new captain Lleyton Hewitt who face a difficult World Group tie against the United States on the historic grass of Kooyong in Melbourne.

“I know it’s going to be a tough tie,” said Kyrgios who is returning to the Aussie fold after being left out of last year’s World Group semi-final against eventual champions Britain because his attitude was deemed to be not right. “It’s never easy traveling from one side of the world to the other in a couple days and then playing. You know the Americans are going to be there early preparing.

“Hopefully, this week doesn’t take too much out of myself. I know Bernard [Tomic] is playing in Acapulco. Obviously I want him to do well and me to do well this week, but I obviously want enough left in the tank to play Davis Cup.”

Copyright © 2016. No duplication is permitted without permission from Bob Larson Tennis.