Kyrgios amazes Federer in Epic

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Wow!

Nick Kyrgios plays an outstanding match to beat his childhood idol, mr. Roger Federer, in Madrid.

There were some question marks before this match for the young Australian that has reached the final in Estoril the previous week, but he couldn’t cope against clay court specialist Richard Gasquet. The question was:if he couldn’t stand Gasquet, what are the chances to beat King Roger? Well the conditions in Madrid are much more suitable for Nick that can take advantage of the altitude (ie. the balls are much faster) to blast his powerful shots. In fact, the unability of Federer to return Nick’s first serve (the Maestro is notoriously not a good returner) made the difference.

The match
Roger didn’t start well to immediately lose his serve (0-2 for Nick), but eventually the Swiss managed to win the opener at the tiebreak (at 2) after Kyrgios failed to serve out the match when he was 5-4 up. In the second set Roger squandered a 2-0 lead as Kyrgios was still struggling for a wrong call that penalized him in the previous tie-break. Eventually the Australian recovered to win the set at the tiebreak (at 4). Of course the epic was in the 3rd and more precisely in the tiebreak. Kyrgios saved 2 match points to win the match only at his 6th match point. The final score was 7-6 (2) 6-7 (4) 7-6 (12). Match Stats

Some stats
Roger won more points than Nick (131 vs. 127). The Australian blasted 22 aces (Roger 16). Both had a good break point conversion (2/4 for Federer and 2/3 for Kyrgios). To be honest this match could haven’t been more even. It was just about a winner here or a winner there.

Kyrgios: I wasn’t feeling nervous

Nick commented “Before the match I didn’t feel nervous or anything like that. I was just excited to get out to the court. I’ve been playing well recently on the clay, so I knew I had a good chance to go out there and do well. I stuck to my game and served well and I got the win.”

 

Federer: I couldn’t return his first serve

Roger was extremely frustrated for the defeat “My problem was I couldn’t return his first serve. It was just a horrible performance on the return. As the match went on it got so bad that I just couldn’t get into decent positions on the return, so it made it very difficult to get any sort of rhythm after that.

But credit to him for serving well and keep doing what he was doing. But I’m very disappointed by that. That’s what cost me the match, in my opinion.”

LISTEN SOME THOUGHTS FROM KING ROGER     
                                 
listen to Roger Federer on audioBoom

Next vs. Isner

Nick will play John Isner in the 3rd round. Ready for another epic?


 

THIS GUY WAS QUITE HAPPY     
                                 

 

 

 

 

 


 

THIS GUY WASN’T     
                                 

 

 

 

 

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