Plan B Forum

Astonishing. Remarkable. Extraordinary.



Insert your own superlative. Nick Kyrgios, aged 19, and ranked 144th, has reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals by stunning world No.1 Rafael Nadal in four sets on centre court in one of the great grand slam upsets.

The first man in a decade to reach the last eight here on debut served out the match to love, 7-6 (7-5), 5-7, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 with a 37th ace in two minutes short of two hours.
He dropped his racquet, acknowledged the players’ box and even danced a little jig. But it was not an hysterical celebration; more, from the Kyrgios perspective, almost an inevitable one.

The Australian is the first player ranked outside the top 100 to beat a world No.1 since 1992, and the first teenager to achieve the feat at a gland slam since Nadal himself beat Roger Federer at Roland Garros in 1995. he is the lowest-ranked player ever to beat Nadal at a major, and the most junior to beat the great Spaniard anywhere since No.690 Joachim Johansson in Stockholm in 2006.

Kyrgios dropped his magnificent serve just once, when he allowed Nadal to level at one-set all, but although he only broke once, too, in the fourth set, it was enough. Two tiebreaks took care of the rest, less than a week after he was spared a second round exit with a successful Hawk-eye challenge of a double-fault called on the fifth of the nine match points he saved against Richard Gasquet.

“I think I was in the zone out there,’’ said Kyrgios, who must somehow back-up on Wednesday against Canadian eighth seed - and another monster server - Milos Raonic. ‘I played some incredible tennis. I was struggling a little bit on return, but I worked my way into it and got that break in the fourth set.’’

The constants were his serving, and incredible self-belief. “You have to believe that you can win the match from the start, and I definitely thought that.’’ Afterwards, he said he was unsure what to do. “Just so many emotions.’’

Having quipped pre-match that he and Nadal shared 14 grand slams between them, if there is to be a 15th this week then it can now only be won by the fearless young man from Canberra. Few who witnessed what Kyrgios brought to his debut match on centre court would have doubted they were watching a potential future champion, but the speed of his arrival has just accelerated, wildly.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/tennis/nick ... z36Fg4GNeh

MajGenl.Meade wrote:Brilliant! Surely this citizenship thing should be examined by the birthers though? Greek father and Malaysian mother.... shorely shome conshpiracy?


Now "our" Andy has a much better chance. Good job he's English British

Lord Jim wrote:When I was kid, two of the best tennis players around were Rod Laver and Ken Rosewald; Aussies both...

Growing up, the Harry Hopman trained guys were winning nearly everything.