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Deep in the tiebreak of one of the very best sets of tennis played this year, Nick Kyrgios slammed his racket and then hollered towards his box, his face a picture of utter rage. He had saved three set points with some audacious touches, but then as he generated his own, he was ground down by the immense durability and defence of Daniil Medvedev, the top-ranked player in the world.
As he stepped up to the baseline with the tiebreak level at 11-11, there was a time not long ago when this could have fizzled out in an anti-climax. But not these days. Under immense pressure, Kyrgios gave the purest demonstration of his ball striking talent, exploding into a down he line backhand then immediately following it up with a delicate drop shot winner that set the tone for what was to come.
In an intense, high quality tussle that felt so much greater than a mere fourth round encounter, the best summer of Kyrgios’s career endured for another day as he defeated Medvedev, the defending champion and world No 1, 7-6 (11-9), 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals of the US Open for the first time in his career.
It is another step forward in a year that Kyrgios has learnt how to manage himself more professionally, focusing on how to optimise his success on the court. Kyrgios is now a supreme 35-9 in 2022. He has won more matches than any other player this summer, and if he had been granted those 1200 points from his Wimbledon final run, he would be comfortably top eight in the ATP race, right behind Medvedev himself.
Despite the fourth-round billing and Kyrgios’s seeding, this was a heavyweight battle between the best and most in-form players in the top half of the draw.
