As a more calm and collected Nick Kyrgios takes centre stage at the Australian Open, his tennis is benefiting in the biggest moments.
He returns to action on Sunday night with a fourth-round clash with third seed Grigor Dimitrov.
Beginning his tournament with a pledge to be more composed, the Canberran has shown it both on and off the court.
And nowhere is that more evident than his tiebreaks.
Kyrgios is ranked in the sport’s top three, behind only Roger Federer and Alexandr Dolgopolov, for winning them.
He has a 20-8 record in tiebreaks since the start of last year’s Australian Open, including a 4-0 record this week at Melbourne Park. Federer and Dolgopolov are 21-8.
Against Tsonga in the third round, it was the difference.
In a match where breaks were hard to come by, Kyrgios won all three to progress to the last 16.
“I knew my best chance was probably to get in a couple breakers,” Kyrgios said.
“He served extremely well I thought throughout the whole match. I didn’t really get a look at many second serves at all.”
While Kyrgios’ record in the biggest moment speaks for itself, the 22-year-old said he didn’t know of his top-three record.
“I don’t know if it’s elite,” he said.
“Tiebreaks kind of favour the big server. If I’m serving well, I feel like if I can put a couple returns in the court. I got a pretty good shot to win the tiebreak.
“My mentality doesn’t change. I just try and serve big and play big.”
The Kyrgios-Dimitrov match is the showpiece match of Sunday’s action.
Rafael Nadal’s fourth-round match with Diego Schwartzman is the last match on Rod Laver Arena’s day session.
The winner of that clash plays either sixth seed Main Cilic or 10th-ranked Pablo Carreno Busta.
Should Kyrgios progress, he will enjoy a quarter final against either Kyle Edmund or Andreas Seppi.
Caroline Wozniacki spearheads the women’s singles action on day seven, facing Magdalena Rybarikova on Rod Laver Arena during the afternoon.
Her biggest rival from the bottom half of the draw, Elina Svitolina, closes centre court against unseeded rival Denisa Allertova.
tsuru
Roar Rookie
Here in the north-east the courts are mostly Har-Tru which is the green-blue synthetic clay. It plays a little faster than red clay in most places, although I played a tournament at one place where it was damp and it was like playing on a rice pudding. It's now (in NYC) the morning after the Dimitrov match and it's amazing how the stats of the match are just about the reverse of the Kyrgios-Tsanga match. Nick seemed to dominate the stats but lost the match. It was on here too late to watch so I didn't see it, but it seems that Dimitrov must have raised his game.
Fionn
Guest
I think you're right about the courts playing very fast. My mate down there who is doing some data analytics of the AO says they're probably even quicker than last year. I think with Dimitrov the problem is mainly mental. I mean, he won the year end finals and they're on quick, low bouncing indoor hard courts, so he should be able to do well here too. When Nick serves well on a fast hard court he's almost unstoppable unless you utterly dominate the rallies or have an equally potent serve (although at the moment I'd rank Nick's serve as third best in the world after Karlovic and Isner I think, especially Nick's second serve).
Fionn
Guest
Is that the blue clay in the US or the red clay? Unfortunately the scourge of synthetic grass courts are still alive and well across Australia, but in Canberra it is possible to play on clay and hard also without too much effort. Djokovic is pretty unique I think. When they cut to him when he is preparing for matches he is always stretching also. His flexibility and S and C is incredible.
tsuru
Roar Rookie
No I haven't played a lot on hardcourts. When I was young in OZ it was grass or clay. Now in America, it's mainly clay (Har-Tru) at least in the north-east. In winter I play a bit on indoor hardcourts and I find the bounce very different, but haven't hurt myself. If you're saying that was to blame for Tsonga's injury, you could be right, but you'd think these guys would be accustomed to it and training specifically for the surface. I'm always stunned by the way the better movers, particularly Djokovic, can slide on the hardcourts.
tsuru
Roar Rookie
I agree about Dimitrov. Not only relying on slicing his backhand but he doesn't seem to be getting down to it - he's too upright. I'm wondering if the ball is keeping low - I've heard mention of the courts playing fast. The one good thing from his point of view is that he has found a way to win despite his problems - something he has not always been able to do even against lesser opponents. I think Kyrgios should start a slight favourite.
Fionn
Guest
Tsuru, have you played much on hard courts? Plexi is pretty brutal to play on, and you can randomly injure yourself on it just by putting your weight down wrong. The players have to do so much rehab after every match in order to pull up okay the next day.
Fionn
Guest
'It shows that we get impressions that are often not accurate. Something I’ve learned from Nick Bishop’s articles.' Great last point, tsuru. I was shocked to realise that Nick and Tsonga had the same number of aces, although I think that is more due to Nick's relatively weaker return game. Nick should be at least equal favourites with Dimitrov in their match. I haven't been impressed by Dimitrov this tournamnet at all. He has fallen back into his bad old habit of playing too passively—overly reliant on his slice on his backhand side and not being aggressive on his forehand. And his second serve has been disgraceful this tournament.
tsuru
Roar Rookie
OK, Fionn. I just watched a replay of the 3rd & 4th set tie breakers. I was wrong - mostly. 3rd set: both made 5 first and 2 second serves including 2 aces. However Kyrigios missed his first serve on his first 2 serve points. Tsonga missed his first serve on his last 2 serve points and his 2 second serves were 136 and 124 kph. As for the "injury" at 5-2 in the last tiebreaker, I re-watched it 5 times and I still can't figure what happened. He did not seem to hit himself as one commentator suggested. And he seemed to move around the court fine, but pulled away from the volley at 5-3 and his backhand at 5-4. Yes it was unlucky, but we'll never know what might have happened, particularly as Kyrgios hit a very good drive low at him at 5-3 which would be tough with or without injury. It shows that we get impressions that are often not accurate. Something I've learned from Nick Bishop's articles.
Fionn
Guest
Tsonga served well enough to win the match (Tsonga is better in the rallies so serving vaguely as well as Nick was enough). Injuring himself when up 5-2 in the 4th set tie break while serving was extremely unlucky. If that hadn't happened he probably would have won that set and then in a 5th it was anybody's to win.
tsuru
Roar Rookie
The serve was the difference. Although both players served very well over the course of the match, Kyrgios served better in the tie breakers. Tsonga let him have a look at a couple of 2nd serves, particularly in the 3rd set (I missed the tie-breaker in the 4th so maybe there too) whereas Kyrgios got a lot of 1st serves in and he went for a few 2nd serves. As the commentators said, the match was decided by a couple of points at crucial moments. If you looked at the stats you'd give the edge to Tsonga - except for 2nd serves: Kyrgios was comfortably better on that stat.