Kyrgios continues march through Washington with semi-final win

The Citi Open has brought out the best in Nick Kyrgios once before, and it is doing so again in 2022.

Kyrgios, the 2019 champion in Washington, DC, finds himself back in the final after beating Mikael Ymer 7-6(4), 6-3 at Rock Creek Park Tennis Center on Saturday night. The Australian held all 11 of his service games without facing a single break point and he earned the lone break of the match at 4-3 in the second set, propelling him to victory after one hour and 34 minutes.

Kyrgios admitted to not playing his best, and that may have been due to Ymer’s defensive skills.

“The difference was he stands on the fast and he makes you play that extra ball,” the 27-year-old said of his opponent. “He’s an incredible athlete and I really wasn’t expecting him to be that fast. Maybe next time I might have a couple different tactics when I play him, maybe not to try and out rally him, maybe come forward a little bit more. But it was a tough-fought semi-final and I’m just happy to be in the final once again.”

A perfect serving performance by Kyrgios

As usual, Kyrgios dominated on serve from start to finish. In addition to denying Ymer any break-point chances, the Wimbledon runner-up fired 10 aces without double-faulting and he won more than 70 percent of the points on both his first and second serves.

After Kyrgios finally broke his Swedish opponent in the penultimate game of the contest, he held to 30 at 5-3 by capitalizing on match point in appropriate fashion — with an ace.

Rublev or Nishioka will face Kyrgios in final

Kyrgios will go up against either Russia’s Andrey Rublev or Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan in Sunday’s title tilt.

The world No. 63 preceded Saturday’s result with wins over Americans Marcos Giron (6-3, 6-2), Tommy Paul (6-3, 6-4), Reilly Opelka (7-6(1), 6-2), and American Frances Tiafoe (6-7(5), 7-6(12), 6-2).

Despite the loss, it was Ymer’s best tournament of his 2022 campaign. The world No 115 beat Andy Murray (7-6(8), 4-6, 6-1), Aslan Karatsev (6-4, 3-6, 6-4), Emil Ruusuvuori (6-3, 6-7(3), 6-4), and Sebastian Korda (6-2, 5-7, 6-3).

You might also like this

Kyrgios books semi-final spot after saving five match points against Tiafoe

tennis majors

“It brings the fire in himself that he needs to play his best” – Mouratoglou on Kyrgios’ on-court volatility

tennis majors

Eye of the coach # 60 – Why Nick Kyrgios is a much better player when he’s mad at the world (and the umpires)

tennis majors