10 of the best wins from match point down in 2022: No 8: Kyrgios beats Tiafoe, Washington, QF
In No 8 in our 10-part series of the best escapes, we examine Nick Kyrgios’s win from five match points down over Frances Tiafoe in Washington
Nick Kyrgios at the 2022 Citi Open
Image Credit: Zuma Panoramic
In 2022, a total of 140 matches on the ATP/WTA Tours were won from match point down; 81 on the men’s side and 59 on the women’s side. Two men – Jannik Sinner and Dominic Thiem – did it four times while two women – Petra Kvitova and Jessica Pegula managed it on a Tour-topping three occasions.
Tennis Majors has picked out 10 of the best of those 140 matches, where one player escaped from the jaws of defeat to claim an unlikely victory.
No 8: Citi Open, Washington: quarter-finals: Nick Kyrgios beats Frances Tiafoe 6-7 (5), 7-6 (12), 6-2
Kyrgios wins epic tiebreak and edges Tiafoe
Nick Kyrgios is not someone you would necessarily have picked as a man to dig deep when the going gets tough in a match. At least before 2022.
But this was the year Kyrgios became a major finalist, his run to the Wimbledon final giving him massive belief, which in turn took him to a new level.
In Washington, he and Frances Tiafoe played out a brilliant quarter-final, the second-set tiebreak a mini-classic in itself.
There was never more than a point between them in the second-set tiebreak, in which Kyrgios saved five match points before snatching it 14-12 and then going on to pull away in the third, thanks in no small part to 35 aces.
