Kyrgios serves up Federer in classic win

NICK Kyrgios lit up the tennis world with an extraordinary display of his freakish talents en route to the Queen’s Club quarter-finals.

The mercurial Australian No. 1 used the Wimbledon lead-up event as the stage to showcase his Roger Federerlike qualities during a 7-6 (7-3), 6-7 (57), 6-3 second-round win over British No. 1 Kyle Edmund. Kyrgios’s exhibition-style mimicking of Federer’s silky serve, as well as the delivery of flamboyant Frenchman Gael Monfils, left some of the greats of the game gobsmacked.

Former women’s world No. 1 Tracey Austin could scarcely believe the former Wimbledon quarter-finalist still managed to rain down 32 aces while often copycatting his peers’ serves.

“I’ve never seen this. It actually looked like an exhibition,” Austin marvelled on the Tennis Channel.

Kyrgios also mixed tweener lob winners with the usual flurry of forehand and backhand winners to further underline his credentials as one of Federer’s more serious Wimbledon threats next month.

But the 23-year-old also came under fire for swearing during the impressive victory. Kyrgios, though, insisted he was unfazed that the BBC, who which was showing the match live in the UK, had to apologise for his bad language.

“Fine. I don’t care,” Kyrgios said.