Nick Kyrgios’s mouth has landed him in plenty of trouble this year but as Andy Murray prepares to face the young Australian in the first round of the US Open today, one thing will not have gone unnoticed. The boy can play.

Murray knows Kyrgios better than most, on and off the court, having beaten him on all three occasions they have met, while taking him under his wing, somewhat, in an unofficial mentoring role.

Almost a lone voice in asking for a bit of patience with Kyrgios after the Australian received a suspended one-month ban for making a lewd comment to Stan Wawrinka in Montreal last month, Murray knows better than to think it will be a cakewalk.

As the likes of Grigor Dimitrov and Milos Raonic – considered the next generation – have struggled to break the dominance of the Big Four of Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Murray, many feel that Kyrgios could be the man to take the step up.

Certainly John McEnroe and Mats Wilander, two pretty sound judges, believe he is the next big thing, if he can find the balance between being himself on court and being professional enough off it. “When he smooths out the edges, he could be a tremendous positive, I think, for the game, and a top-five player,” McEnroe said this week, while Wilander went a step further when asked, during Wimbledon, how far he could go.

“No one knows how well he can play,” the Swede said. “There is no level, no height to what he can jump. He just looks at the opponent on the other side and says, ‘OK, I’ve got to win this match’, and he figures out a way to do it.”

Whether he can figure out a way to beat Murray is another matter. Few players possess as much power and his serve and forehand are more than a match for most players. And even though he has not taken a set off Murray in their three matches, including at both the Australian Open and French Open this year, he is not lacking in belief.

“You could say it’s a tough match-up for me but I think any player is going to struggle against him,” said Kyrgios. “He’s got such great defence. He barely misses a ball out there, he competes really well and I think he’s one of the best athletes on tour as well.

“But I feel like I can win. I’ve played him three times now, I know what his strengths are and know how to play it. I just have to play the right game style and I just have to execute it on the day.”

When they met in Paris, Kyrgios blamed an elbow injury for a reduction in his serving speed but he will go into the match in good health. “I feel like I’m in pretty much the best shape I’ve been in this year,” he said. “I’m injury free. I’m feeling pretty good, getting some good practices in. Obviously having Lleyton [Hewitt, who’s helping him in a part-time role] on court has helped me a lot. I feel like I’ve been practising well, my preparation’s been really good and I feel like I’m playing some really good tennis.”

What makes Kyrgios stand out above many of his contemporaries, though, is his love of the big stage. That was never more evident than when he blew Rafael Nadal off the court at Wimbledon last year en route to the quarter-finals. “I think he likes playing on big stages,” Murray said. “I think that’s where he’s played his best tennis throughout his career.

“I think last year he only won one or two matches outside of slams in the whole year and obviously this year his results have been inconsistent but at the slams he made the quarters in Australia. I played him in the third round at the French and at Wimbledon he was close to reaching the quarters again there. So I would expect him to be ready for the match. He gets himself fired up for the big events.”

The two other British men in the draw, Aljaz Bedene and James Ward, play their opening matches today. Bedene, ranked 57 and pushing for a place in the top 50, faces former top-10 player Ernests Gulbis of Latvia, high on confidence after a recent win over Gilles Simon but struggling to shake off a cold.

Ward, trying to break back into the world’s top 100, plays Brazil’s Thomaz Bellucci, seeded 30. Second seed Federer, who is scheduled to meet Murray in the semi-finals and who beat the Scot on his way to the title in Cincinnati just over a week ago, begins his campaign against Leonardo Mayer of Argentina today.