Nadal survives Kyrgios test in Wimbledon thriller

LONDON, (Reuters) - Twice Wimbledon champion Rafa Nadal emerged victorious from a memorable four-set duel with Australian wild man Nick Kyrgios that delivered everything it had promised in front of an enraptured Centre Court crowd on Thursday.

The fiery Kyrgios threw everything he had at the third seed - including an extraordinary 143mph second-serve ace - and undoubtedly had him rattled before the Spaniard eventually prevailed 6-3 3-6 76(5) 7-6(3) in the second round clash.

It was the best match of Wimbledon’s opening week as, amongst the expected histrionics, both men hit the heights with some relentlessly powerful and accurate serving in particular.

Nadal started strongly, got pegged back as Kyrgios fuelled himself with fury in a second set full of incident, then came through a high-octane tiebreak to take the third.

The 43rd-ranked Kyrgios then gave a reminder that amid all the antics there is a player of huge quality, one of the few with the weapons to challenge the game’s dominant trio, with 33-year-old Nadal the one he seems most able to unsettle.

Nadal, however, is not one to take a backward step and again showed his mettle in the clutch moments to come through for a third round meeting with Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

“When he wants to compete, he’s one of the toughest opponents you can face,” Nadal said of Kyrgios.

“It’s amazing how good he is able to play, so if he is able to forget all these things, he’s potentially a Grand Slam winner. He has a lot of good ingredients to become a champion but, of course, there remains an important one sometimes, and that is the love, the passion for this game.”

Nadal was in complete control in the early stages and Kyrgios seemingly needed an injection of emotion to fire him up. The Spaniard duly provided it with his slow-motion movement between points and a surprise toilet break after the first set. “Why am I waiting to serve?” Kyrgios asked the umpire.

The Australian made his mark when he blasted a 143mph (230kph) second serveace - the fastest serve of any sort during the tournament so far and the secondfastest second serve in ATP history. He followed up with another ace – via a gentle under-arm lob – though still lost the first set comfortably.]