It was the first time the two K’s – Konstas and Kyrgios – have gone head-to-head in a fight for the affection of Australia’s sporting public. As in any contest, there can be only one victor – and this time tennis was a straight sets winner over cricket.

Love him or hate him, Nick Kyrgios can still pull a crowd, with just under a million Australians (930,000 average national audience) tuning in to Channel 9 to watch him go down to Scotland’s Jacob Fearnley in the first round of the Australian Open on Monday night.

At the same time, rising cricket star Sam Konstas was doing his thing in the Big Bash League for Sydney Thunder against defending champions Perth Scorchers. The 19-year-old helped pull in an average national audience of 523,000 for Channel 7, scoring a vital half-century in Thunder’s comfortable win.

Fox Cricket figures, which were not made public, would have swelled those viewing numbers but not enough to topple the tennis. The brash and confident Konstas drew comparisons with Kyrgios after a confrontational entry to Test cricket during the feisty Border-Gavaskar series.

It led one leading sports communication expert – Gemba’s Andrew Condon – to remark on LinkedIn: “Sam Konstas may eventually be as polarising as David Warner and Nick Kyrgios. “Many traditionalists won’t like the way he goes about it, but his confidence, youthful exuberance and sheer enjoyment of the moment is what makes him refreshing. Like Kyrgios is to tennis, he is exactly what Test cricket needs to remain relevant.”

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Steve Molk, an analyst for the TV Blackbox website, was not surprised Monday night’s television ratings were heavily skewed towards tennis on the back of the Kyrgios effect. He told Yahoo Sport Australia: “We are a parochial lot, even if it is to watch Kyrgios lose.

“Kyrgios is a love/hate figure with the audience. Some will have watched in the hope he would lose. If he and (Thanasi) Kokkinakis get through in the doubles then there’ll be lots of attention again.

“The Australian Open is always good business for Nine – and Seven before them. It’s so valuable to start the ratings year off the back of the tennis.”

Following his straight sets loss to Fearnley, Kyrgios declared it was likely to be his last appearance in a singles match at the Australian Open. Fans are desperately hoping the 29-year-old and good mate Kokkinakis can push injuries concerns aside and compete in the doubles – an event they won in 2022.