Kyrgios beats Paul to set up clash of big servers against Opelka

Australian Nick Kyrgios reached the last 16 of the Citi Open by defeating American Tommy Paul, the No 14 seed, 6-3, 6-4 at Rock Creek Park Tennis Center in Washington on Wednesday evening.

The Australian has now won two matches in Washington DC this week, having defeated American Marcos Giron (6-3, 6-2) in the first round.

Kyrgios, the runner-up at Wimbledon last month and ranked No 63, will face No 4 seed Reilly Opelka next.

Opelka has a 2-0 lead in the head-to-head between two of the biggest servers in the men’s game. The American won their 2021 round of 64 clash at the Canadian Masters in three sets and their semi-final clash in Houston earlier this year in straight sets.

Washington ATP 500, other second-round results (Rock Creek Park Tennis Center, hard, USD 2.108.110, most recent results first):

• Reilly Opelka beat Denis Kudla: 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-4
• Frances Tiafoe (10) beat Christopher Eubanks (WC): 6-3, 7-6 (2)
• Maxime Cressy (13) beat Jack Sock: 4-6, 6-4, 6-0
• Grigor Dimitrov (5) beat Adrian Mannarino: 6-1, 3-6, 7-5
• J.J. Wolf (WC) beat Denis Shapovalov (6): 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-3
• Taylor Fritz (3) beat Alexei Popyrin: 6-4, 6-3
• Sebastian Korda beat Sebastian Baez (12): 6-1, 6-4
• Yoshihito Nishioka beat Alex De Minaur (11): 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-2
• Emil Ruusuvuori beat Hubert Hurkacz (2): 6-4, 7-6 (3)
• Mikael Ymer beat Aslan Karatsev (15): 6-4, 3-6, 6-4
• Holger Rune (9) beat Benoit Paire: 6-3, 6-2
• Karen Khachanov (7) beat Dominik Koepfer (Q): 6-7 (3), 7-5, 6-4
• Botic van de Zandschulp (8) beat Borna Gojo (Q): 7-6 (6), 6-7 (5), 6-4
• Andrey Rublev (1) beat Jack Draper: 6-4, 6-2
• Daniel Evans (16) beat Kyle Edmund: 6-1, 6-2

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