Nick Kyrgios powered his way into the final of the Citi Open despite not getting to sleep until nearly 5am on the same day as his semi-final match.
The Wimbledon runner-up fired 10 aces and won 77% of his service points during his 7-6(4), 6-3, win over Sweden’s Mikhail Ymer. A player who is currently ranked 52 places lower than him in the world rankings. It is the 11th time Kyrgios has reached a Tour final and the second time he has done so in Washington after winning the title back in 2019.
“Honestly I didn’t play anywhere near my best tennis today and I don’t know. The role was reversed, the past couple matches I’ve been on paper, rankings-wise the underdog in my past couple matches, but today I definitely felt like the favourite,” Kyrgios said in his on-court interview. “I served pretty solid. Obviously my winning percentage behind my first serve would have been high, but from the back of the court I didn’t play well at all.”
It has been a gruelling week for the 27-year-old who had to play two matches on the same day on Friday. After beating Marcos Giron and 14th seed Tommy Paul, his clash with Reilly Opelka was postponed due to lightning. On Friday he defeated Opelka in straight sets and then later on the same day he overcame Frances Tiafoe 6-7, 7-6, 6-2, in a late-night clash.
Kyrgios, who is also playing in the doubles tournament with Jack Sock, said the adrenaline generated from his win over Tiafoe made it hard for him to sleep. Their match didn’t end until 1am local time but he didn’t get to sleep until almost four hours later.
“I didn’t get to sleep until 4.50am, I just had so much adrenaline after (the Tiafoe win),” Kyrgios said after beating Ymer.
“I got some treatment and my body was just so sore after last night. It was an epic battle.
“I didn’t really do much today but I felt like my energy was a little flat early on today and it’s understandable, I’m only human.
“My adrenaline for the final is going to be right there and I’m super excited for it. I’ve got doubles tonight, work on my returns a little bit. I returned pretty poorly tonight I’m not going to lie, so hopefully I can turn it up a little tonight.”
Awaiting the Australian in the final will be Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka who continues his resurgence in form. The world No.96 hadn’t won a match on the ATP Tour since March until this week. However, he regained his form with the help of playing on the lower-level Challenger Tour. In his semi-final match, he stunned Russia’s Andrey Rublev 6-3, 6-4, to reach his first ATP 500 final.
“I love to play here, I have been here many times. But for tomorrow, everyone loves Nick as well. Hopefully still they… the crowd, [cheers for] me, but just [going to] enjoy the day tomorrow,” atptour.com quoted Nishioka as saying during his on-court interview. “[It is my] first time [in a] final in a 500, so [I will] just [try to] play my best and [I am] excited.”
Kyrgios leads Nishioka 3-0 in their head-to-head and has only ever dropped one set against him.
