After he got defeated in 5 sets by Karen Khachanov, Nick Kyrgios tore down two of his rackets in a row while his opponent was receiving his much-deserved round of applause from the crowd on Arthur Ashe.
Nick Kyrgios restringing his racket after the match
pic.twitter.com/Q2TDri1mxa— PropSwap (@PropSwap) September 7, 2022
The match ended 7-5, 4-6, 7-5, 6-7, 6-4 for the Russian world number 31, who will meet Casper Ruud in the semifinals of the US Open.
Khachanov’s pre-match plan to beat Kyrgios
Before the encounter, Karen Khachanov acknowledged that Nick Kyrgios is a real deal now, even though he admitted that he will have to face a difficult task at the US Open.
“I mean, Nick said by himself that he doesn’t recognize himself in a way how professional he is right now,” Khachanov said.
“I think the Wimbledon showed him if he does the things like he does now which kind of level he has, what he’s capable of. Obviously everybody knows that, the way he’s serving. I think the thing would be the same for me, focus on serve, keep the serve. In US Open I wanted to do well.
Also I felt like I was playing good level overall lately, since the second part of clay season. I was playing more consistent. I had better results, like reaching quarterfinals, semifinals. I wanted to do one more step to have bigger results.
I’m right now in a good state of mind, good level of tennis. I’m really happy to reach first time quarterfinals here in New York,” said Khachanov.
Nick Kyrgios’ good tactics weren’t enough
Before the Khachanov-Kyrgios match, John McEnroe acknowledged that Nick Kyrgios’ serve is absolutely impressive but also noted that the Australian does a good job of playing tactical tennis.
First of all, I’ve said this before, the guy has got one of the greatest serves in the history of tennis.
The guy was serving at 70% – I don’t think people realise that’s the highest on tour, how big he serves, how good his second serve is – now he is backing it up big time. If he plays like he did last night, he is going to win the tournament,” McEnroe said on Eurosport.
See more of what McEnroe had to say about Kyrgios: John McEnroe offers assessment of Nick Kyrgios’ performance versus Daniil Medvedev