Better late than never, Nick Kyrgios is off to Wimbledon as Australian tennis's two most polarising personalities look to wreak havoc at their happiest grand slam hunting ground.
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Two weeks after delaying his departure because of a shoulder niggle, Kyrgios was boarding a plane on Wednesday for London, where Bernard Tomic has already made his presence felt with a stirring first-round comeback victory at Wimbledon qualifying.
Despite their lowly rankings, the former quarter-finalists loom as two players to avoid on their favoured grass courts of SW19.
Kyrgios hasn't played since the Australian Open in February but a lack of matches hasn't hindered the 26-year-old in the past.
Three-time Wimbledon champion John Newcombe says even the seemingly untouchable world No.1 Novak Djokovic would be looking on nervously at Friday's draw, hoping to avoid Kyrgios.
"I'm sure Djokovic wouldn't want to play him in the first round at Wimbledon," Newcombe told AAP.
"Look, there will be a lot of top players who won't want to see Nick in their section of the draw.
"He's underdone but he's going to be very hard to beat, put it like that."
After sitting out the French Open, Kyrgios confirmed his Wimbledon entry on Tuesday night by taking to Twitter in search a mixed doubles partner.
Newcombe believes the men's big guns will be hoping the mercurial talent is bundled out early so they avoid a confrontation with the most dangerous unseeded floater in the field.
"If he has one really tough match, he might have trouble coming up for the next match," Newcombe said.
"I imagine the top guys will be hoping that he'll meet a very good player, not one of the very good ones but a solid player who puts a lot of balls back and then Nick will get frustrated.
"That's what they would be hoping because he could come out against one of the top seeds first round."
Bidding to qualify for the main draw for a fourth time, Tomic beat Slovenian Blaz Kavcic 4-6 6-4 6-3 in his opening match at Roehampton.
The 28-year-old Tomic has already successfully qualified for this year's Australian Open and is now two wins away from repeating the effort once again at Wimbledon.
Tomic plays Spaniard Bernabe Zapata Miralles next.
Fellow Australians Chris O'Connell, Matt Ebden and Marc Polmans are also safely through to the second round of qualifying.
Australian Associated Press
