Nick Kyrgios has scored a stunning win over Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals of Cincinnati to record his 100th win on the ATP. The Australian, who like Nadal was playing for the second time on Friday, played aggressive tennis en route to the 6-2 7-5 win.
Earlier in the day, Kyrgios had got the better of Ivo Karlovic while Nadal had won in straight sets over Albert Ramos-Vinolas.
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Kyrgios started by far the strong, earning two early breaks as he raced away to a 4-0 lead. For Nadal the damage was done in that set as the Australian eased to the opener.
If Nadal had been hoping to shift the momentum in the second set, he was to be disappointed. Despite having break points at 2-1, some enormous ground strokes from Kyrgios, coupled with uncharacteristic errors from the top seed, allowed the Aussie back into the game.
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It was a costly miss for the presumptive world No.1. In the next game Kyrgios got his own look at the break, and was able to convert.
The Australian had seized an advantage that he refused to let go. A couple of match points came and went with Nadal serving at 3-5. It looked like Kyrgios was going to wrap it up at 5-4, but the Aussie tightened up and Nadal was able to save a third match point on his way to breaking back.
Just as it seemed that Nadal had seized the momentum, a sloppy service game once again handed Kyrgios the break at 6-5 and this time there was no mistake from the Aussie. Some solid serving, coupled with brilliant ground strokes brought up a fourth and fifth match point. Kyrgios needed only one of them as he secured his place in the Cincinnati semifinals with a massive ace.
Kyrgios will play David Ferrer in tomorrow’s semifinal.
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