LONDON: French Open champion Stan Wawrinka gave short shrift to Nick Kyrgios’s claims that his 6-3, 6-4 victory in the Queen’s Club first round on Tuesday was the result of the Australian’s physical and mental fatigue.

Just nine days after his stunning final victory over world No.1 Novak Djokovic at Roland Garros, Wawrinka made light of the tricky switch from clay to grass with a dominant display against one of the ATP Tour’s brightest young stars.

The Swiss second seed swept through his first round clash in just 49 minutes to set up a second round meeting with big-serving South African Kevin Anderson at the Wimbledon warm-up event.

But, while Wawrinka was on top form, it was a surprisingly subdued exit for Kyrgios, the flamboyant Australian youngster who burst onto the scene last year with a memorable Wimbledon victory over then-world No. 1 Rafael Nadal.

Kyrgios has gone on to underline his growing reputation this year by becoming the first teenager to reach the Australian Open quarterfinals since 1990 and then knocking Roger Federer out of the Madrid Masters.

But, in his first meeting with Wawrinka, the world No. 28’s Queen’s debut proved a damp squib.

Meanwhile, defending Queen’s champion Grigor Dimitrov moved into the second round with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory against 2010 winner Sam Querrey.

Dimitrov had trailed by a set and a break on Monday, but bad light forced the match to be halted at one-set all and the Bulgarian sixth seed returned to finish the job in comfortable fashion.

Later on Tuesday, top seed and three-time Queen’s champion Andy Murray plays his opener against Taiwanese qualifier Lu Yen-Hsun.

Two-time Wimbledon champion Nadal, fresh from winning the Stuttgart grass-court event on Sunday, starts his Queen’s campaign against Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov.

Nishikori moves up

HALLE (Saale), Germany: Japanese second seed Kei Nishikori is into the second round at the grasscourt Halle Open after battling past Austria’s Dominic Thiem 7-6, 7-5.

Nishikori, who recently reached the French Open quarterfinals at Roland Garros, came through in straight sets but was made to work extremely hard by the 21-year-old, who’s beginning to make a name for himself.

Thiem won his first ATP title on clay in Nice last month and the danger signs were there for the Japanese when the Austrian had three set points with Nishikori serving at 5-6 down in the opener.

But the US Open runner-up held his serve to force a tie-break, which he took 7-4 to move into a one-set lead.

The second set was also a close encounter until 25-year-old Nishikori — who’s chasing a 10th ATP title after wins in Memphis and Barcelona this year — broke late on to secure his 35th win of the season.

He faces German wild card Dustin Brown in round two.

Elsewhere at Halle, seventh seed Bernard Tomic was dumped out after losing in straight sets to American Steve Johnson.

Australia’s Tomic, who’s won two ATP Tour titles, went down 6-3, 7-6(7/4).

Eighth seed Ivo Karlovic survived a test against Colombia’s Santiago Giraldo to come through in three sets.

The Croat lost the opener on a tie break 7-4 before recovering to take the next two sets in a 6-7(4/7), 6-4, 6-4 victory.

There was bad news though for two-time champion Tommy Haas, the 2009 and 2012 winner was beaten in straight sets 7-5, 6-2 by Italy’s Andreas Seppi.