If Nick Kyrgios wins his maiden ATP World Tour clay-court title this week in Houston, perhaps Jack Sock, John Isner and Sam Querrey should ask for a cut of his prize money.

The Americans pitched Kyrgios on coming to the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship, and it worked: The 22-year-old Aussie is making his debut at the only clay-court event in North America.

“I heard a lot of good things about it. Obviously a couple of my buddies always play this tournament, told me, ‘You’d love it here’,” Kyrgios said on Tuesday. “All the Americans said it’s an amazing tournament. So I gave it a chance and it’s been unbelievable so far.”

The Aussie officially made his Houston debut on Monday, falling in doubles with countryman Matt Reid. But Kyrgios’ singles stay will start on Wednesday when he faces American Bjorn Fratangelo, who dropped only two games in beating Kyrgios’ countryman Jordan Thompson 6-1, 6-1 on Monday.

Kyrgios carries altered expectations this week compared to his start of the year. In January, after declaring it was “time to mature”, he had the best beginning of his career.

The 22-year-old hoisted his fourth tour-level title at the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp and reached the fourth round at his home Grand Slam in Melbourne.

But injuries to his back and right elbow have slowed him down. He withdrew from Rotterdam, Delray Beach, Acapulco and the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells before making the fourth round at the Miami Open presented by Itau (l. to Zverev) last month.

“Just to go out there and get through a match without having pain is a success for me. Obviously I want to go out there, win matches, win a tournament. I’m more than capable of that,” Kyrgios said.

“But at this stage it’s just more about making sure my body can sustain match pressure. Going out there and practising is different than going out there in a match situation and feeling no pain, so we’ll see how it goes.”

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Kyrgios reached his lone clay-court final in 2015 at the Millennium Estoril Open. His Top 5 potential can transfer to any surface, as top seed John Isner acknowledged earlier this week.

“He’s got a service motion that, it won’t ever fail. It’s a perfect service motion. He’s just so talented. His backhand is world-class. His forehand is world-class. For him, everyone knows, he knows, it’s all between his ears,” Isner said.

“If he wants to put it together, I think he can, and he has showed that. So hopefully he comes here in the right frame of mind and puts on a good show for everyone here in Houston.”

To Kyrgios, the change to clay means having patience, waiting a shot or two longer before unleashing a 110-mph forehand down the line. But he sounds ready for the task and appreciative of his improved health, all good news for Houston fans.

“If you’re pretty physically strong you have good success [on clay]. But for me I think it’s just about being disciplined. You can’t shorten the points as much as you can on other surfaces. You gotta hang tough, and you’ll have good success,” Kyrgios said. “I’m just pretty grateful to be in a healthier state of mind and ready to get going.”

Steve Johnson was within two points of a disappointing defeat on Tuesday night. A year after winning the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Clay Court Championship in Houston, the American was on the verge of falling in the opening round.

But the 28-year-old overcame a 5/4 deficit in a second-set tie-break to defeat 2017 Houston semi-finalist Ernesto Escobedo 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-2 in two hours, 25 minutes as day turned to night. 

“He’s definitely a good frontrunner. He hits the ball very hard. He kind of takes the racquet out of your hands,” Johnson said. “Later stages of that tie-break in the second, I just needed to take it to him, make sure, win or lose, I did it on my terms, and I was able to finally get a break of serve in the third.”

Johnson is one of five former Houston champions in this year’s draw, and the right-hander is attempting to earn his third ATP World Tour title. 

Escobedo had the best week of his young career at the River Oaks Country Club last year, advancing to his maiden ATP World Tour semi-final. But the American would not make a quarter-final the rest of the season, and as he served at 5/5 in the second-set tie-break to earn a match point, the 21-year-old double-faulted wide down the ‘T’.

That slip was all Johnson needed, as the World No. 51 closed out the set and immediately broke in the decider. From there, the veteran started to find rhythm on his dangerous forehand wing, and the free-swinging Escobedo made more mistakes. Johnson next faces #NextGenATP American Frances Tiafoe for the first time in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series.

“I served much better in the third set than I did in the first two sets, so I was able to get those first couple points in each service game,” Johnson said. “Then I was able to just get across that finish line.”

#NextGenATP American Taylor Fritz came even closer to defeat than Johnson, recovering from a 5-2 deficit in the third set and saving two match points to battle past compatriot Tim Smyczek 6-7(3), 6-2, 7-6(6) in two hours, 39 minutes. 

“It feels like I’m pretty clutch,” Fritz said. “Even though I probably shouldn’t have gotten that one out.”

Fritz, who advanced to the Round of 16 at the BNP Paribas Open (l. to Coric) and holds a 14-3 record on the ATP Challenger Tour this year (won in Newport Beach), had Smyczek right where he wanted him after saving match point at 5-6 in the decider — heading to a third-set tie-break. While the World No. 124 had complete control of his second match point and was perhaps millimeters from triumphing — a forehand drop volley clipped the very top of the tape at 6/5 — Fritz was not to be denied. The 20-year-old is now 6-0 at all levels this season in final-set tie-breaks.  

He will face another American in No. 7 seed Ryan Harrison, who faced far fewer difficulties in ousting qualifier Miomir Kecmanovic 6-4, 6-3 in 76 minutes without facing a break point. 

Houston is a special place for Harrison, who in 2008 qualified at just 15 years old, and defeated Pablo Cuevas in the first round to become the youngest player to win an ATP World Tour match since Rafael Nadal at 2002 Mallorca. The right-hander made the quarter-finals in 2012 before losing to his current coach, Michael Russell.

The oldest player in the field, 2007 champion Ivo Karlovic, beat Japan’s Taro Daniel 7-6(5), 6-4 in one hour, 36 minutes.

“It is always nice here. I’ve always liked it. It’s a really nice club,” Karlovic said. “It was a really good match. It is actually my first win as a 39-year-old, so I’m happy about that.”

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Johnson has more than just a possible title defence to look forward to. The American is getting married on 21 April.

Top seed and 2012 finalist Albert Ramos-Vinolas lost just two of his first-service points (20/22) to beat Moroccan wild card Amine Ahouda 6-1, 6-2 in 68 minutes on Tuesday at the Grand Prix Hassan II. Ramos-Vinolas, who has a 1-5 record in ATP World Tour finals, is 112-95 lifetime in clay-court matches according to the FedEx ATP Reliability Index (166-186 overall).

“I’m happy with my match today,” said Ramos-Vinolas. “I haven’t a played a tournament for a month and it feels great to be back. I’m looking forward to the clay court swing and playing a lot of tournaments.” He will next play Russian qualifier Alexey Vatutin, who recorded his first tour-level match win in beating Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

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There were two seeds — No. 5 Robin Haase and No. 7 Alexandr Dolgopolov — who made early exits at the ATP World Tour 250 clay-court tournament. Former World No. 13 Dolgpolov has missed the past nine weeks due to a right wrist injury.

Bosnia & Herzegovina’s Mirza Basic hit nine aces in scraping past Haase 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 in two hours and 15 minutes, will Italian qualifier Andrea Arnaboldi saved all six break points he faced to defeat Dolgopolov 6-2, 6-3 in 79 minutes.

Elsewhere, two former champions from Spain — 2011-12 titlist Pablo Andujar and 2014 winner Guillermo Garcia-Lopez — booked their spots in the second round. Andujar knocked out Belarusian lucky loser Ilya Ivashka 6-3, 7-5 and Garcia-Lopez overcame French qualifier Calvin Hemery 6-2, 6-2.

Second-seeded Briton Kyle Edmund was leading Jiri Vesely, a semi-finalist in Morocco for the past three years, 5-0 after 17 minutes of play when the Czech retired due to injury.