London - Stanislas Wawrinka needed only 49 minutes to beat Australian Nick Kyrgios in the Aegon Championships at Queen's Club as he basked in the glow of his French Open triumph.
The Swiss, who stunned Novak Djokovic to win the title at Roland Garros, picked up where he left off on Paris with a 6-3 6-4 victory on the sun-drenched west London grasscourts.
It had looked like a tough assignment for second seed Wawrinka, whose free-hitting game can take time to adjust to the slick grass, but he served superbly throughout and produced a few trademark backhands to delight a large crowd.
Kyrgios reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals last year, demolishing Rafa Nadal en route, but looked distracted as he set foot back on the grass and only threatened briefly, when he had break points at 2-3 in the second set.
Wawrinka snuffed out that danger and the rest of the match flashed by before many of the corporate ticket holders had made it back from lunch.
Wawrinka, a semi-finalist here last year, will face big-serving South African Kevin Anderson in the next round.
Later on a high-quality day of first-round action at the traditional pre-Wimbledon tune-up, Rafa Nadal faces Alexandr Dolgopolov and three-times former champion Andy Murray faces Lu Yen-hsun.
Defending champion Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria plays a deciding set against American Sam Querrey after bad light stopped play on Monday. – Reuters