Oz Summer 2012-13 #18

The quarterfinal round of the singles at Westlakes presented an interesting but tough and unpredictable opponent for Greg in the form of the Australian Open Junior Champion for 2013, young Australian 17 year-old Nick Kyrgios, from Canberra, already ranked 843 in the ATP rankings. Kyrgios is flush with his success in the Juniors, now ranked as the No. 1 in the world, is tall with a strong build for a junior player, and has a big game with a huge serve, and full of confidence with nothing to lose will be able to swing freely and go for his shots, a bit of an unknown for Greg to face.

Australian Open Junior Singles Champion 2013

And Kyrgios came out swinging, breaking Greg in the first service game, despite Greg serving four first serves. Greg fought back, bringing up break-point on Kyrgios' serve but Kyrgios was able to save and hold serve, to consolidate the break. Greg held and so did Kyrgios before Kyrgios again broke Greg to lead 4-1, with a double break. Greg rallied and brought up break-point on Kyrgios' serve and this time converted to get back to 5-2. But Kyrgios came out swinging again and broke Greg again to lead 5-2. Not to out-done, with Kyrgios serving for the set, Greg forced Kyrgios to 15-40, but Kyrgios saved both of those points before Greg again brought up break-point and this time was succesful, getting back a break at 3-5, then holding serve to force Kyrgios  to again serve for the set at 5-4. With the bravado of youth, given a second chance, Kyrgios served out the game to love, winning the first set 6-4.

Greg plays a backhand

Greg held his first service game of the second set as did Kyrgios. Then Greg had two game points but could not convert before Kyrgios brought up a break point, converting to lead 2-1, then 3-1. Greg then saved two break points from 15-40 and held serve, to keep the score close at 2-3. Greg was again forced to save two break pints in a long deuce game, before again holding for 3-5. Games went with serve to 5-4, with Greg unable to make any in-roads on Kyrgios's serve, with Kyrgios serving to close to 80% and winning most of those 1st serves. Then, with Kyrgios serving for the match and still serving well, Greg saved match point and forced Kyrgios to deuce and then broke him, to unexpectedly level the match at 5-5.
One would have thought the lesser experienced player in Kyrgios would now start to have doubts and back off a bit, but he did not. He came on even forced Greg to 0-40 and broke him again, to lead 6-5 and have another chance at serving out the match, which he did with aplomb this time, winning the set 7-5, and the match 6-4, 7-5.
Greg said he had not played badly and that Kyrgios  was just swinging at everything and they were landing. It was difficult to counter with Kyrgios who was serving at such a high percentage, and although Greg served well, at 60%, Nick had returned even better, going for his shots with success. A pity for Greg who is in good form but not able to serve at his best with a slight stomach muscle strain. Hope he recovers soon.