Kyrgios had played just one singles match in two years and had not played his home grand slam since 2022, when he closed it out by winning the doubles title with Thanasi Kokkinakis.
Kyrgios called tournament physios to deal with an apparent rib problem and lost nearly 30 miles an hour off his serve in the second and third set, beaten eventually in two-and-a-quarter hours by the Brit.
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Read MoreHe had been due to play an exhibition event at Melbourne Park with Djokovic on Thursday but pulled out, revealing a grade one abdominal tear that looked like it might stop him playing the major at all.
However, it was Kyrgios’s side that seemed to be bothering him in the opening stages of his clash with Fearnley, the 23-year-old from Edinburgh who caused Djokovic significant problems at Wimbledon last July.
Fearnley was only playing his third ever grand slam match (Photo: AP)
It was a key part of his performance. John Cain Arena has a capacity of 10,500 and is open to ground-pass holders, meaning it is invariably a much rowdier atmosphere than the other show courts, not least when Kyrgios plays on this his favourite court – and by putting the match on not before 7pm local time, organisers knew exactly what they were doing.
But Fearnley, to his eternal credit, was virtually flawless. In the opening set, he out-aced one of the world’s best servers 9-5 and in a tie-break that felt inevitable, he won six of the first seven points to take a stranglehold.
“Great, he has got a service bigger than mine,” he said, as though Fearnley’s 127mph serve was not something he had expected. He was a student at Texas Christian University until May last year, but has hardy been anonymous since, winning four titles on the second-tier Challenger circuit and breaking into the top 100 in the world.
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Read MoreBut what was also missing was the athletic ability that got Kyrgios to a Wimbledon final and earned him seven career titles, albeit no one believes he has fulfilled the potential he showed when he reached the quarter-finals of Wimbledon for the first time in 2014 as a fiery teenager.
All Kyrgios needed was a sniff. That it had taken nearly two hours to enter his nostrils did not matter. He broke back, got 40-0 up and started playing the hits. The underarm serve, the behind-the-back squash shot. When he won the point, the arena exploded. Kyrgios put his finger in the air to acknowledge them and for a second it felt like there was a way back for him. But the speed gun told a different story, with Kyrgios’s first serves usually barely touching 105 miles an hour. He could still hit 130 occasionally, but it was usually followed by an extended grimace.
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