Kyrgios too good for Dimitrov in Brisbane
B2
BRISBANE, Australia: Controversial Australian Nick Kyrgios produced two sets of superb tennis to see off top seed Grigor Dimitrov on Saturday and reach the finals of the Brisbane International.
Kyrgios came back from losing I played a pretty loose game to get the first set to win 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 and broken,” Kyrgios said. set up a decider against American “From then on, I felt pretty in conRyan Harrison. trol of the match.”
Harrison had earlier ended the fairyKyrgios will be the overwhelming tale run of 18-year-old wildcard Alex favourite to win his fourth title when de Minaur 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 in two he takes on Harrison. hours and 37 minutes. The two players have some his
Kyrgios admitted after his quarterfitory between them, going back to nals win over Alexandr Dolgopolov 2015 when in a match against that he sometimes turns his talent on Stan Wawrinka, Kyrgios told the and off “like a tap”. Swiss star that fellow Australian
And as he has done all week, he Thanasi Kokkinakis had slept started slowly against defending chamwith his girlfriend. pion Dimitrov, losing the first set to a A week later Harrison and single break of serve. Kokkinakis had to be separated by
But he came out firing in the secofficials during a fiery match, with ond set, breaking Dimitrov twice Harrison reportedly saying “Waand taking just 30 minutes to level wrinka should’ve decked Kyrgios the match. and I should deck that kid.”
Kyrgios served superbly in the secBut Kyrgios downplayed any tenond and third sets, winning over 80 sion between the two. percent of points on his first serve and “(Our) matches haven’t been very facing just one break point. close, so I don’t really know why
Dimitrov, on the other hand, has there’s much history there,” he said. struggled with his serve all week and De Minaur had looked like beKyrgios was able to take full advantage, coming an unlikely finalist when he with his returns keeping the Bulgarian took the first set against Harrison, under constant pressure. the world number 47, and led 5-3
He cracked at 3-3 in the third set and in the second set tiebreak. was broken, and the way Kyrgios was However, Harrison stepped up serving, the match was as good as over. the pressure and reeled off the
“I hadn’t beaten him before (so) gonext four points to take the set ing into today, I knew that I was going and level the match. to do something a little different,” Harrison then broke de Minaur Kyrgios said. twice at the start of the decider and
The Australian said he wanted to disalthough the Australian got one rupt Dimitrov’s rhythm and be aggressive. break back he was unable to com
“He played a pretty solid first set, plete the comeback.