An intriguing contest is scheduled to take place in the opening round of the French Open, as riding Aussie star Nick Kyrgios is scheduled to begin his 2015 campaign at the second Grand Slam event of the season against Denis Istomin. It will serve as just the second time that these two competitors will meet on the professional circuit, as they met last season in a Davis Cup tie between Australia and Uzbekistan. Kyrgios won the match to hand himself a 1-0 lead in the head-to-head series.

After reaching his first final on the ATP World Tour in Estoril, Nick Kyrgios finished runner up to Richard Gasquet that day but would go on to win the biggest match of his career a few days later when he ousted Roger Federer in the second round of the Madrid Masters. However, he would go on to lose his following match on the tour and will come into the French Open having lost three of his last four matches. Most recently, he retired down 3-4 to Dominic Thiem in Nice.

The youngster will come up against Denis Istomin, who has only managed to win two main draw matches since the start of the clay court season. He failed to qualify for Monte Caro, won one match in Istanbul and then one in Geneva. His most recent win was a 6-2, 6-0 thrashing of the returning Janko Tipsarevic but that is unlikely to hand him the necessary momentum to succeed on the clay in Paris.

This is just the second time that these two competitors will cross paths on the professional tour, with Kyrgios leading the head-to-head series 1-0. The Aussie won his sole contest against Istomin at last year’s Davis Cup tie against Uzbekistan, and while this is their first clay meeting, there is little doubt that Kyrgios should be the favourite.