London, July 5 (BNA) Angel Nick Kyrgios reached the quarter-finals of a seven-year Grand Slam when he recovered from a slow start to defeat American Brandon Nakashima in five sets at Wimbledon Central.
With the bad-tempered Kyrgios, Court One still winning over fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, the Australian was in his best behavior against the Royal Box as he racked up a 4-6 6-4 7-6 (2) 3-6, 6-2 win, according to Reuters.
Chilean unseeded Christian Garin awaits in the quarter-finals after defeating Kyrgios compatriot Alex de Minaur, giving Kyrgios a golden opportunity to move past his Wimbledon quarter-final career on his 2014 debut when he stunned Rafa Nadal.
After the chaos and toxic atmosphere on Saturday, when Tsitsipas Kyrgios was accused of bullying, he let his tennis do the talking against the 20-year-old Nakashima, not uttering a word in anger throughout the match which included a few usually associated with Australian fireworks.
While his tennis never reached the heights he could achieve against Tsitsipas and at times struggled physically, Kyrgios still hit 61 winners, 31 of whom were aces.
“It wasn’t even close to my best performance, in terms of level, but I’m just fantastic, very happy to qualify,” Kyrgios, who has now won 11 of 14 matches in five sets, said on court.
“I’ve never lost the fifth set here. Honestly, that’s what I was thinking. I was like, ‘I’ve been here before I’ve done it before and it’s back.'”
Asked about confronting Garen, he said, “I wouldn’t think about it. I’ll need a glass of wine for sure tonight.”
Kyrgios enjoyed amassing some of the trainees in the warm-up period and even practiced some under-arm passes.
But they were few and far between in a three hour and 10 minute match that was fun rather than exciting.
If anything the world number 40 appeared to faint in the opening set and seemed to be bothered by a stiff shoulder.
Two slow forehand errors at 4-5 gave Nakashima the opening set as Kyrgios, who he lost in another Grand Slam quarter-final to Andy Murray at the 2015 Australian Open, looked in danger of an unimpressive exit.
But he broke his serve 2-1 in the second set and, after receiving treatment on his shoulder on a change, gradually raised the dynamometer to settle the match.
Nakashima’s focus was all-encompassing even though the American kept his nose up in the lead in the third set and his earnest style brought two set points close when he sent Kyrgios back at 4-5.
This time Kyrgios worked his way out of trouble, and after waiting for another love service to enter a tiebreak, he switched tactics, hitting two winners, one on each wing, to move within one set of victory.
Nothing seemed like at all with Kyrgios on the field and when he looked like he was in control, he suddenly came out of the boil and dropped his serve twice in a row as Nakashima took her in the decider.
At that point, with Kyrgios finally starting to curl up on his chest, Nakashima seemed a good bet to become the youngest American man to reach the quarter-finals here since Andy Roddick, 20, managed it in 2003.
Kyrgios stuck from 0-30 to make it 1-1 and then pressed the switch, breaking twice as he rushes away to victory, sealing it with a silky shot.