With his best result at Wimbledon in 6 years, are we witnessing a Kyrenaissance?
By Myre Aberdan
It’s not every day that you see Nick Kyrgios manage to pull it all together at a major. Despite being on the brink of death in his opening night match against Englishman Paul Jubb, Kyrgios will play tonight for a spot in the men’s quarterfinal.
The last time he made it to the 4th round of Wimbledon, most of the current top 10 were outside of the top 100. Wimbledon 2016, to be precise.
This year, the draw for Nick has opened up. Last year’s runner up, Matteo Berretini, pulled out of Wimbledon. Kyrgios was projected to face Berretini in the quarter-finals . Adding to this, in yet another shock, last year’s Wimbledon semi-finalist, Denis Shapovalov (and the man Kyrgios was to play this very round) was dumped out of Wimbledon in the second round.
In previous years, Kyrgios had been stopped at majors by either imploding, or from players having the tournament of their lives. Very rarely has there been an in-between.
The stars are aligning yet again for a deeper run for Kyrgios. It is not every day that draws are this favourable, and Kyrgios has had a great mix of players he can handle, but also players that can play on grass.
If he keeps his momentum, he is projected to draw Rafael Nadal in the semi-final of Wimbledon.
Nadal has played Kyrgios several times before, and for some reason, each and every one of their matches seem to be highly captivating. Kyrgios definitely seems to bring his A-game for matches against Nadal. Some classics between the pair include the 2014 Wimbledon 4th round. It was here that a teenage Nick Kyrgios made a name for himself, stunning the then world number 1 Rafael Nadal.
Like him or not, the ratings seem to suggest that Kyrgios is an enormous drawcard, with his matches this year at Wimbledon on court 1 looking more like centre court at times.