Nick Kyrgios continued his brilliant run with a three-set win over world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev in Montreal. The Australian Wimbledon runner-up wore down Medvedev 6-7 (2-7), 6-4, 6-2 in a second-round clash played in intense heat and humidity.
After losing the first set in a tiebreaker, Kyrgios had to dig deep and turned the match around with an incredible backhand pass to break Medvedev in the sixth game of the deciding set. He broke the despondent Russian for a second straight service game before closing out the match at love after exactly two hours.
The thrilling victory was Kyrgios’ third win in four meetings with Medvedev, his 14th victory in his last 15 matches and his second against a world No.1, eight years after he conquered Rafael Nadal on his Wimbledon debut when he was teenager
“I’ve had some success against him in the past and he’s beaten me before, so I feel like we know each other’s games well,” Kyrgios said. “I’m not the type of player who goes into these games looking at the standings or anything like that.
“It’s just who I’m playing and what ball they’re giving me and today I had a very clear target of how I was going to play – a lot of serve and volley, a lot of aggressive play from the back … and I executed better than him on the day. That’s all it came down to. He won the first set and I feel like I had chances there as well, so hopefully I can move on.”
Kyrgios, who faces Australian No. 1 Alex de Minaur for a place in the quarter-finals, is not getting carried away and cemented himself as one of the US Open favorites after his rousing win over last year’s Flushing Meadows champion.
“Look, a grand slam is very, very different from any other tournament,” he said. “If I was in this Grand Slam position, you still have to win another set and that’s not easy at all. He is a machine. He’s the best player in the world for a reason and in a Grand Slam he’s a totally different beast.”
However, Kyrgios continues to make a mockery of the rankings and the 27-year-old’s latest triumph has all but secured the Canberran a very important seed for the New York major from August 29.
“Look, I feel confident in my body and my mindset going into the US Open, but at the same time there’s a long time between then and now,” Kyrgios said. “I have to focus on this event and then Cincinnati. There are so many things I have to look forward to. I won’t even think about the US Open right now. I have to take care of my body.”
De Minaur set up a first meeting with Kyrgios with a 7-6 (7-4) 7-5 second-round win over Bulgarian 15th seed Grigor Dimitrov.