New York: Australian Nick Kyrgios breezed into the US Open fourth round for the first time in his career, defeating American JJ Wolf 6-2, 6-3 in a business-like decimation to set up a clash against top seed and defending champion Daniil Medvedev of Russia.
The 23rd seed Kyrgios, a Wimbledon finalist this year, fended off all seven break points he faced and took one hour, 54 minutes to get past the American on the Louis Armstrong Stadium, and will need to beat the tall Russian to secure his maiden appearance in the quarterfinals.
Medvedev took the court after the pulsating three-hour final between Serena Williams and Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic inside Arthur Ashe Stadium and defeated China’s Wu Yibing 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 to reach the second week for the fourth consecutive year.
“It was a very tough match for me,” Kyrgios said. “I knew JJ is a home crowd favourite, I knew I had to be on my guns today and serve well. I’m just really happy to move forward. I’m really excited to play Medvedev,” Kyrgios was quoted as saying by atptour.com.
Three-weeks ago, Kyrgios had extended his ATP head-to-head lead against Medvedev to 3-1, after upsetting the Russian at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Montreal, Canada.
Kyrgios, who improves to 34-9 this season and is 13-2 since his maiden Grand Slam final at the All England Club, has already moved up three places this week to No. 22 in the ATP Live Rankings. If he advances to the quarterfinals, the 27-year-old Kyrgios will be back in the top-20 for the first time since February 2020.
“I’m doing it (winning) for my team as well, we’ve all been away from home for a while. I’m just playing for a lot of people back home,” Kyrgios said.
Wolf, who had upset 16th seed Roberto Bautista Agut on day one, equalled his career-best Grand Slam result by reaching the third round in New York.
“At the US Open, this is the furthest I’ve ever gone, so it’s a special year for me already, hopefully I can keep it going,” Kyrgios said.
–IANS
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