Nick Kyrgios has put up an incredible display of serving to knock Novak Djokovic out in the quarter-finals of the Mexico Open with a thumping straight sets victory.
Undoubtedly one of the best victories of Kyrgios’ career, he served a staggering 26 aces across the match with Djokovic not knowing what hit him at the other end of the court.
While Djokovic’s serve was good, it was completely overshadowed by the Australian who stole the show, taking the first set in a tense tie-breaker and the second with a break of serve on the final service game of the match. If Djokovic had have held serve, it would have set up a second tie-breaker.
Kyrgios got off on the right foot, but he wasn’t consistent during the first set. His drop shot failed him a number of times, and he faced some tough situations on serve, but always bounced back and pulled something out of the bag.
He had a break point opportunity himself during the first set, but couldn’t capitalise with Djokovic getting it to six all on the back of a highly consistent serve.
Djokovic seemed to cramp up in the tie-break, and although it took four set points, Kyrgios eventually put it away 11-9. If Kyrgios didn’t win the first set, the match might have skipped away from him rapidly, but instead the Kyrgios win set up an intriguing second set.
It was a case of the same type of serving for Kyrgios, with Djokovic holding serve all the way to the end of the second set. Despite that, it felt as if the momentum was with Kyrgios, who constantly challenged Djokovic’s serve and won points.
Djokovic made a number of uncharacteristic errors during the second set and while his class allowed him to stay in the match, he never looked on top.
While Djokovic didn’t show any signs of injury, he was nowhere near his best and seized up under pressure at the end of the match, serving poorly during the final game and having Kyrgios march all over him, finishing it with a booming forehand down the line.
Despite the scoreline, Kyrgios dominated the match. A tie-breaker and 7-5 wouldn’t suggest so, but Djokovic never really looked like he would win the match despite his standing.
The win for Kyrgios comes after he was caught swearing at spectators during his first round match against Dudi Sela, and then ran over the top of Donald Young, who had advanced to the second round after a win over Bernard Tomic who retired due to ‘unbearable heat’.
Kyrgios will now go on to face Sam Querrey in the semi-finals at 3pm (AEDT) tomorrow. The other semi-final is at 11am (AEDT) between Marin Cilic and Rafael Nadal, with the final being on Sunday morning.
Final score
Nick Kyrgios 7 7
Novak Djokovic 6 5
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