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Nick Kyrgios has been ousted from the US Open after being forced to retire with a hip injury.
After winning the first set in a relative canter, the Australian dropped the next two sets, struggling with the pain more and more as the match went on, finally being forced to call it off at the change of ends before the fourth set.
Click here for the match report
Australian Nick Kyrgios will be looking for another easy victory and to get off court quickly when he takes on world no.63 Illya Marchenko. Join The Roar for live scores from around 10:30am (AEST).
Maybe the biggest concern for Kyrgios, as he progresses through the tournament, is what appears to be a painful hip flexor injury he picked up during the Second Round.
While it hasn’t looked to have affected his on-court play just yet, you can’t imagine he’ll go through the length of the tournament without feeling the effects.
For that reason, we should expect Kyrgios to be more aggressive than normal on his serve, if that’s even possible, while trying to end points quickly when not on serve and save the amount of distance he has to run.
After good form leading into the tournament, the Australian hasn’t lost a set in the first two rounds defeating Aljaz Bedene 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 and Horacio Zeballos 7-5, 6-4, 6-4.
The match against Zeballos was when he suffered the hip injury and it showed in the statistics, with 27 aces and 92 percent of points won on his first serve.
Marchenko on the other hand, after being knocked out of the Olympic Games by Andreas Seppi in the First Round, continued to maintain some ordinary form during the lead-up, not winning a match on the Challenger Circuit.
He’s looked a lot better at the US Open though, defeating Ivan Dodig 6-3, 6-4, 6-7, 7-5 in the First Round, and the man Bernard Tomic lost to in the First Round, Damir Dzumhur 6-2, 6-4, 6-3.
With a powerful ground stroke game, he might have the perfect offence to unsettle Kyrgios and his serve, but everything will have to work perfectly for the experienced Ukrainian.
The pair have never matched up before this meeting.
The winner of this will take on Stan Wawrinka, and with their past incidents and rivalry, what a matchup Kyrgios vs Wawrinka would be in the Fourth Round.
Prediction
Kyrgios has been in strong form, and if nothing else, he’s going to pick up a lot of free points off his serve. One way or another, he will win and it won’t take very long because he can’t afford to be on the court for a lengthy match.
Kyrgios in straight sets.
Be sure to join The Roar for live scores from around 10:30am (AEST) or at the completion of Laura Siegemund vs Venus Williams match and be sure to get involved by dropping a comment below.
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde