Australia’s Nick Kyrgios is into his second ATP 500 final of the year after defeating Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(7).
Kyrgios had early breaks in the first two sets, but in the second he let Tsitsipas back into the match as he went from 2-0 up to trial 5-2 before finally winning serve to see Tsitsipas serving for the second set.
Kyrgios seemed to be agitated due to someone in the stands.
With the match at a set apiece, there was a lighthearted moment when at 2-1 in favour of Kyrgios, Tsitsipas had a lace break on his shoes. Some shoes were delivered to his father and Kyrgios waited for them to be re-laced.
Kyrgios then took the bag containing the shoes and delivered them to his opponent with a bow as if Tsitsipas was the king.
Games went with serve in the deciding set although Tsitsipas had a look at two break points against the booming Kyrgios serve.
In the tie-breaker it was the Australian that jumped out to a 5-1 lead only to see Tsitsipas win the next six points to hold a match point at 5-6. A big first serve that Tsitsipas hit just long saved the match point for the Australian.
A booming Ace down the T gave Kyrgios his first match point with Tsitsipas to serve. The first serve was a fault, then the second serve looked long but Kyrgios did not challenge the serve.
After a backhand passing shot from Kyrgios could not be handled by his opponent Kyrgios held a match point. A big serve and an easy putaway sealed the win.
Kyrgios hit 43 winners to 39 from Tsitsipas and he had 25 unforced errors to 11. The Australian had 19 Aces.
Kyrgios will face Russia’s Daniil Medvedev. The Australian leads the head-to-head 1-0 after winning at the ATP Masters 1000 Rome claycourt event earlier this year.
After reaching the final Kyrgios will become the top-ranked Australian men’s player.
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