He’s back! Brilliant Kyrgios thrashes Ruud at UTS New York

Nick “King Kyrgios” Krygios beat Casper “The Iceman” Ruud three quarters to love in the second quarter-final at UTS New York on Thursday, thrashing the Norwegian 17-8, 21-9, 15-11 to book his spot in the semi-finals.

Kyrgios, who has played three matches since making the quarter-finals of the US Open two years ago and had reconstructive wrist surgery 11 months ago, looked brilliant across the course of the match.

“What a way to come back,” said King Kyrgios after the win on Thursday.

“I wasn’t expecting to play this well at all. Coming out here and still having that level, it’s amazing. 

“Let’s see if we can string a couple of matches together.”

Kyrgios served at a high level across the match, striking his serve at an average of 164 km/h in the first quarter despite the UTS rules not allowing second serves.

He also played down the lines with incredible accuracy, ripping consistent winners to blow Ruud off the court. Throw in a few croquet-style backhands and “fake and bake” slap forehands, and this was well and truly a comeback to remember for Kyrgios.

“He hit like eight lines in a row, so what can you do?” said Ruud at one stage between quarters. “Obviously Nick is serving great, he just played me out of it.”

Kyrgios “surprised but not surprised”

When asked after the match if he was surprised at the level he had produced, Kyrgios said:

“I’m surprised, but I’m not that surprised. I’ve been putting in some serious work, every single day back home.”

He went on to detail some of what he’s been through over the past year.

“Obviously pretty emotional, it’s been a brutal 11 months,” he explained.

“I didn’t know if I was going to play tennis again with the state of my wrist. It was literally conversations of never playing again.

“Casper’s probably one of the best players in the world, so one of the best ways to test my wrist.”

Kyrgios said that the UTS format was a challenge, but also proved how much work he has put in behind the scenes on his fitness.

“It was awesome. It was very fast, I could feel my lungs burning. Thank f*** I put in some work back home.”

The Australian will now play in Friday’s UTS New York semi-finals against the winner of Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Bublik, before heading to the US Open where he will compete in the doubles.

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