Australian Nick Kyrgios has beaten current world number one Daniil Medvedev 6-7 (1-7) 6-4 6-2 at the Canadian Open on Wednesday (local time).
Both players came into the match in good form with Kyrgios winning the singles and doubles titles at the Citi Open in Washington, while Medvedev marked his return to the court with a title at Los Cabos in Mexico.
Kyrgios has, however, played far more tennis in recent months after making the Wimbledon final in July – a tournament Medvedev wasn’t allowed to compete in due to a ban on Russian players.
In their Canadian Open clash, the Australian looked sharper from the start but failed to make the most of set points in the first set and was made to pay Medvedev in the tie-break.
Kyrgios lost his cool as he surrendered the first set but managed to regather himself and simply outplayed Medvedev over the next two sets to progress to the round of 16.
His first win over a current World No. 1 in 8️⃣ years 🙌
Take a bow, @NickKyrgios!#OBN22 pic.twitter.com/eOEWJGbv9b
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) August 10, 2022
The 27-year-old could have won the match more comfortably having only converted three of eight break points, but Medvedev himself failed to break Kyrgios at all from his two opportunities.
The Australian has now won three of four matches against Medvedev and knew he always stood a good chance despite their difference in ranking.
“This is the fourth meeting we’ve had and I’ve had some success against him in the past,” Kyrgios said post-match.
“But he’s beaten me before. I feel like we know each other’s games well.
“I’m not the type of player that goes into this match looking at rankings or anything like that, it’s just who I’m playing and what kind of ball they’re giving me.
“Today I had a very clean objective of how I was going to play, a lot of serve-and-volley, a lot of aggressive play from the back.
“I executed better than he did, that’s all it comes down to. He won the first set and I feel like I had opportunities there as well, so hopefully I can just keep this rolling.”
Underarm serve x forehand winner 🎾
A @NickKyrgios special ™️#OBN22 pic.twitter.com/PbdRWJizaJ
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) August 10, 2022
Kyrgios will now face fellow Australian Alex de Minaur in the next round of the Canadian Open on Thursday (local time).
The recent Wimbledon finalist has now won 14 of his past 15 matches but will face another stern test in De Minaur.
The 23-year-old has beaten local hope Denis Shapovalov and Grigor Dimitrov so far at the tournament.
Kyrgios and De Minaur have never played each other at senior level but did team up to win a doubles match at the ATP Cup in 2020.
Both players are finding form at the right time ahead of the US Open at the end of the month with Kyrgios in particular looking like he can be a real contender.
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