In the round of 16 of the US Open, Australia's tennis star Kyrgios shows his two sides again - with outstanding point gains and erratic mistakes. Nevertheless, he beats defending champion Medvedev and now meets one of his compatriots.
Australia's tennis star Nick Kyrgios has disenchanted defending champion Daniil Medvedev and reached the quarterfinals of the US Open in New York for the first time. The Wimbledon finalist won the entertaining round of 16 against the Russian world number one 7: 6 (13:11), 3: 6, 6: 3 and 6: 2 on Monday night.
The curse of the defending champions continues at Arthur Ashe Stadium at the last Grand Slam tournament of the year. Since Roger Federer in 2008, no male tennis pro has triumphed again in the year after winning a title. Medvedev will also lose his lead in the world rankings after the event due to the knockout round. Kyrgios meets Russia's Karen Khachanov in the quarterfinals.
In the third set, Kyrgios caused one of the strangest point losses in history: after an unsuccessful defensive action by Medvedev, the ball flew high in the air, it would clearly have landed on the Russian side. But Kyrgios sprinted behind the net for fun and took the ball smirking volley before it touched the ground. Because this was not according to the rules, Medvedev got the point.
"Well that was... strange," the US Open organizers tweeted, sharing a video of the scene. During the break that followed, Kyrgios asked ex-pro Patrick McEnroe, who conducts the interviews on the pitch, what he had done wrong.
Kyrgios generally showed his two sides again. Highly concentrated in the first set and strong nerves in the tie break with two outstanding stops, undisciplined and erratic in the second set. But the world number 25. caught himself quickly and played his way into a little frenzy from the middle of the third set.
