Kyrgios makes triumphant comeback to competition at UTS New York
Four brilliant quarter-finals on Thursday were headlined by Nick Kyrgios’ successful comeback
Nick Kyrgios, UTS New York 2024 | © Tennis Majors / UTS
The UTS New York semi-finalists have been set on Thursday at Forest Hills Stadium in New York, with a brilliant day’s play leading to Nick “King Kyrgios” Kyrgios setting a clash against Gael “La Monf” Monfils, and Alex “The Demon” de Minaur (1) advancing to play Alexander “The Bublik Enemy” Bublik on Friday.
With four quarter-finals played in the same day for the first time in UTS, the standout performer was Kyrgios, who thrashed world No 8 Casper “The Iceman” Ruud (2) three quarters to love in his first singles match of the year.
Kyrgios had played just three matches since making the US Open quarter-finals in 2022, but the Australian brought a high-level in the second match of the day.
“I wasn’t expecting to play this well at all,” said Kyrgios in response to the 17-8, 21-9, 15-11 victory over Ruud.
“Coming out here and still having that level, it’s amazing. What a way to come back.”
In a rare show of emotions, bad-boy Kyrgios shared that his return to tennis in New York left him emotional on Thursday.
Kyrgios emotional about New York comeback
“Obviously pretty emotional, it’s been a brutal 11 months,” Kyrgios confessed in his on-court interview, before revealing that he doubted whether he would ever return to the game at times over the last year.
“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.”
The Australian declared that he was “surprised, but not that surprised” at his level at UTS New York, and is pleased with how his wrist held up in his first match of the year.
“I’ve been putting in some serious work, every single day back home,” he said.
“Casper’s probably one of the best players in the world, so one of the best ways to test my wrist.
“Let’s see if we can string a couple of matches together.”
Fellow Australian De Minaur also started strongly in New York, sweeping Denis “Shapo” Shapovalov 3-0. In doing so, he qualified for the year-end final in London, guaranteeing he will finish in the top three of the UTS Race this year.
Stefanos “El Greco” Tsitsipas (4) wasn’t so lucky, with the former No 3 losing in sudden death to Bublik, who became the second man in UTS history to steal a quarter, while Monfils stunned two-time champion Andrey “Rublo” Rublev (3) in the biggest upset of the day.
Bublik’s “most nervous match” in career
Bublik also produced some amazing tennis on Thursday, with the UTS veteran putting on a clutch display of serving against Tsitsipas.
With the pair winning two quarters each, the third quarter-final of the day headed to sudden death. What resulted was a UTS-record: the longest-ever sudden death decider.
To determine a winner, one player simply had to win two points in a row. It took a total of seven match points for The Bublik Enemy to be crowned the winner, with the Kazakh prevailing 5-3 over Tsitsipas thanks to some audacious serving.
“The most nervous match I’ve ever played in my life,” he said after winning the match.
“This was crazy, it was a rollercoaster. So tense. I’ve played some big finals in my life, but nothing like this.
“The sudden death killed me, it took five years off my life.
“I don’t know why – it’s not an official Tour match, there’s no points on the line, but for me, I feel such a need to win in this format.
“I felt more tension in this match than when I was serving for the Halle final.”
Bublik also became just the second player in the UTS history to steal a quarter. He went on a red-hot seven-point winning streak, coming back from 17-11 to force quarter-point at 17-15, and then win it 18-17.
UTS New York – results summary
Here’s how all of Thursday’s quarter-finals unfolded:
- Alex “The Demon” de Minaur (1) beat Denis “Shapo” Shapovalov 3-0 (17-16, 19-13, 19-13)
- Nick “King” Kyrgios beat Casper “The Iceman” Ruud (2) 3-0 (17-8, 21-9, 15-11)
- Alexander “The Bublik Enemy” beat Stefanos “El Greco” Tsitsipas (4) 3-2 (20-12, 11-17, 18-17, 10-20, 5-3)
- Gael “La Monf” Monfils beat Andrey “Rublo” Rublev (3) 3-0 (19-12, 15-10, 18-14)
Two semi-finals and two consolation matches will be played at UTS New York tomorrow, with play beginning at 4pm on Friday. Here’s a look at the day’s schedule:
- 4pm – The Iceman vs Shapo (classification)
- 5pm – El Greco vs Rublo (classification)
- 6pm – King Kyrgios vs La Monf (semi-final)
- 7pm – The Demon vs The Bublik Enemy (semi-final)
- 8:30pm – UTS New York final
Select tickets are still available for Friday’s play, and can be found here.
