In a clash of champions, Kyrgios overcomes Medvedev
Two champions collided early in the Toronto Masters 1000 tournament.
Nick Kyrgios last week won the Washington ATP 500 event and world no. 1 world no. 1 Daniil Medvedev claimed the ATP 250 title in Los Cabos.
The opening set was tight with neither player claiming a break of serve, Kyrgios did however have two break points at 4-5 in a game that had five deuces. Medvedev did eventually hold to send it to the tiebreaker.
Medvedev dominated the breaker to take the first set.
Kyrgios hit back immediately, breaking in the opening game of the second set. From there both players held serve to see the Australian claim the second set 6-4.
Medvedev had early opportunities in the second game of the deciding set with a look at two break points against the Australian. He failed to convert and from there it was all Kyrgios.
In the fifth game of the deciding set, Kyrgios hit a blistering forehand return at 15-40 to stay in the game. A double-fault followed for deuce.
Another great return forced an error and suddenly it was a breakpoint. The first was saved with a brilliant down-the-line backhand.
An unforced backhand error gave Kyrgios another look at a breakpoint, this time he converted with a great backhand that dipped at the approaching Medvedev.
A hold and a break and Kyrgios was serving for the match at 5-2.
The Australian was able to comfortably hold to seal a 6-7(2), 6-4, 6-2.
“This is the fourth meeting we’ve had and I’ve had some success against him in the past,” said Kyrgios, after improving his ATP Head2Head series record against Medvedev to 3-1. “But he’s beaten me before [as well]. I feel like we know each other’s games well. I’m not the type of player that goes into this match looking at rankings or anything like that, it’s just who I’m playing and what kind of ball they’re giving me.”
The winners were 34 Kyrgios and 29 for the world no. 1. Unforced errors were 25 Kyrgios and 28 for Medvedev.
Kyrgios won 27 of 43 points at the net, a tactical change that he used against Medvedev.
This win makes it 14 wins from his last 15 matches. It is also the second victory over a world no. 1 for Kyrgios after having defeated Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon in 2014.
“Today I had a very clean objective of how I was going to play, a lot of serve-and-volley, a lot of aggressive play from the back,” said Kyrgios. “I executed better than he did, that’s all it comes down to. He won the first set and I feel like I had opportunities there as well, so hopefully I can just keep this rolling.”
Alex de Minaur later defeated Grigor Dmitrov to set up an all-Australian third-round clash. It will be the first meeting between the two players.