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WIMBLEDON -- There was a time -- about a half-century ago -- when the tennis world revolved on the axis of Australia. Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, John Newcombe, Margaret Smith and Evonne Goolagong all won multiple Grand Slam singles titles. But the game began to go global in the 1970s, and Australia's dominance soon waned. Aside from a brief flurry by Patrick Rafter and Lleyton Hewitt, who each won a pair of major championships just before (Rafter) and after (Hewitt) the millennium, it's been a quiet time for the former British colony. But here at the All England Club, some of that thunder from Down Under has returned. Australia has three top-20 seeds -- Nick Kyrgios, Bernard Tomic and Samantha Stosur -- for the first time since 2000.  As people, Kyrgios and Tomic couldn't be more different, but their tennis trajectories have been remarkably similar. Both had great success on the Wimbledon grass as juniors and broke through as teenagers in spectacular main-draw fashion. And both have been visited by controversy. Both Kyrgios, 21, and Tomic, 23, achieved career-high rankings this year, and Tuesday, with Hewitt looking on, Kyrgios passed into the second round, causing only a minor disturbance. The No. 15 seed, Kyrgios defeated wild card Radek Stepanek 6-4, 6-3, 6-7 (9), 6-1. Meanwhile, No. 19 seed Tomic and Fernando Verdasco were headed to a fifth set when rain intervened. The match is scheduled to be completed Wednesday, but there is more rain in the forecast. Kyrgios, the volatile Aussie, was assessed a code violation by chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani after that third-set tiebreaker when he uttered something unsavory. Just what Kyrgios said was a mystery because Lahyani declined to repeat it when the Aussie asked what was so offensive. "The umpire?" Kyrgios said later in his postmatch press conference. "Yes, we're good. We're not good, but ..." What did he say, exactly? "I mean," Kyrgios said, addressing reporters, "I'm pretty sure we've all said it in this room." In the same time frame, Kyrgios lost his otherwise generally exemplary composure. "Get out, get out," he screamed at his box. "I'm serious, get out!" Interestingly, before the match, Lahyani warned Kyrgios to mind his language and keep hold of his racket. Afterward, Kyrgios was asked if his reputation for spicy language had preceded him. "I'm not going to answer that question," Kyrgios sapped. "Next question." Ultimately, Kyrgios recovered nicely to win six of the final seven games against Stepanek, his good friend. The match was marked by another must-see signature Kyrgios shot -- a between-the-legs lob he said he practices a fair bit. Kyrgios made his first big impression here two years ago as a 19-year-old ranked No. 144 in the world. He stunned No. 1-ranked Rafael Nadal, stroking 37 aces en route to quarterfinals. Last year, Kyrgios made the quarters of the Australian Open and reached the fourth round here. Back in February, he won his first career title at Marseille, France, defeating two top-10 players, including Grand Slam champion Marin Cilic. Eight-time Grand Slam champion Ken Rosewall, a celebrated Aussie player, recently told the Sydney Morning Herald that Kyrgios can be a champion if he can practice consistency and learn to control himself. Despite Tuesday's two-minute meltdown, Kyrgios is clearly making progress in both areas. "I think that's where I've improved a lot, matured a lot," Kyrgios said. "To steady the ship like that, to respond in the fourth set's pretty good. So, yeah, that was a good response."
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