‘Crazy’ win sets up Kyrgios for crunch tie against Nadal
T
he Nick Kyrgios show will have another episode at the Australian Open after he edged a “crazy” five-set clash against Karen Khachanov to earn a crack at Rafael Nadal.
For the second successive night at Melbourne Park, the final match came down to a deciding tie-break, and, after Roger Federer’s Houdini act against John Millman, Kyrgios won the final three points to the delight of a delirious crowd on Melbourne Arena.
Kyrgios’ 6-2 7-6 (5) 6-7 (6) 6-7 (7) 7-6 (8) victory included the usual mix of the sublime and the ridiculous, taking in a series of delicious halfvolleys, several tweeners, an underarm serve and a diving backhand winner that cut his hand and resulted in a row with the umpire over a time violation.
The 24-year-old had led by two sets and a break and also missed a match point in both the third and fourth-set tie-breaks, but somehow found a way to win after four hours and 26 minutes, the longest match of his career.
Kyrgios was almost speechless, saying: “Man it was crazy. I don’t even know what to say right now. That was insane. I’ve got no words for how I’m feeling.”
Kyrgios’ must now to try to beat Nadal for the fourth time in eight meetings.
It will be their second clash in the last three grand slams after Nadal’s victory at Wimbledon, which was given extra spice by negative comments they made about each other, with Kyrgios branding the Spaniard “super salty”.
Nadal, meanwhile, had a stroll in the sunshine in beating fellow Spaniard
Pablo Carreno Busta 6-1 6-2 6-4.
The top seed did not allow his opponent a single break point and hit 42 winners compared to just seven unforced errors.
Fifth seed Dominic Thiem defeated Taylor Fritz in four sets and will next face Gael Monfils, who was a 7-6 (2) 6-4 6-3 winner over Ernests Gulbis.
Andrey Rublev’s remarkable winning run stretched to 15 matches, the Russian 17th seed recovering from a set and a break down to beat David Goffin.
He will next face seventh seed Alexander Zverev, who has played himself into strong form and eased past Fernando Verdasco 6-2 6-2 6-4.
Stan Wawrinka, who has been unwell, had a muchneeded easy afternoon when opponent John Isner retired trailing 6-4 4-1, and he will take on fourth seed Daniil Medvedev, who was a 6-4 6-3 6-2 winner over Alexei Popyrin.
The upsets continued in the women’s singles as second seed Karolina Pliskova joined Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka in exiting the tournament in the third round.
Pliskova had won all six of her previous meetings with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova but it was the Russian who came out on top, winning 7-6 (4) 7-6 (3).
Pavlyuchenkova will next face Angelique Kerber after the 17th seed defeated Camila Giorgi 6-2 6-7 (4) 6-3.