By Richard Pagliaro | Friday, July 3, 2015

Fans watched Nick Kyrgios dangling from the green fence surrounding Court 14 to sneak a peek at the doubles match Davis Cup teammates Lleyton Hewitt and Thanasi Kokkinakis played on Thursday.

Today, the temperamental Kyrgios was facing that boxed-in feeling again when he wound up and splattered his Yonex racquet with such force it bounced off the lawn, bounded high over the fence like a boomerang in flight and into the third row of Court No. 2 narrowly missing some fans in the front row.

Video: Wawrinka Goes Around Net Post

Clearly, this young man has boundary issues.

A day after climbing the walls, Krygios spent the afternoon trying to knock them down with his wrecking-ball serve.

In a wildly-entertaining clash of one-sleeved serving goliaths, Kyrgios disarmed Milos Raonic, 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (3), 6-3 in a Wimbledon third-round win that featured explosive shotmaking, only three service breaks, a couple of tweeners and that titantic racquet toss that helped the 20-year-old Aussie turn the match aorund.

A highlight-reel match for most was just another day at work for Kyrgios who crushed 34 aces nearly doubling Raonic's 18-ace output. Kyrgios hit 61 winners against just 13 unforced errors. The man who toppled Rafael Nadal at the 2014 Championships served 84 percent and fought off six of seven break points he faced.

"I knew my game plan had to be solid on serve and obviously play aggressive tennis," Kyrgios told the BBC afterward. "I knew that he was going to be serving well. I thought I returned really, really well today. I made a lot of balls on his first serve... I knew it was going to be a tough match and I just toughed it out in four sets."

Playing for his second straight SW19 quarterfinal, Kyrgios will face a familiar nemesis, Richard Gasquet, next. The 21st-seeded Frenchman dismissed 2014 semifinalist Grigor Dimitrov, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4, and barely looked stressed sending the 11th-seeded Bulgarian packing for the fifth time in as many meetings. A year ago, Kyrgios fought back from a two-set deficit, denying nine match points to deal Gasquet, a former Wimbledon semifinalist, a gut-wrenching defeat.

The only thing button-down about Kyrgios is his white Nike polo, which he wears old-school style buttoned up to the collar. The tennis showman pretty much lets everything else hang out.

Two of the most explosive young players in the game hail from different continents and are worlds apart in comportment. The methodical Raonic plays points as if they're math problems that can be solved through patterns of logic. The flashy Kyrgios plays with the impulsive flair of a kid spraying a paint ball gun at a canvas curious to see what he can create.

This match was a rematch of the 2014 quarterfinals, which Raonic won in four sets, weeks after bouncing Kyrgios out of the Roland Garros first round. The seventh-seeded Canadian, who underwent foot surgery in May, was the better player today for much of the first two sets.

Squinting into sun while serving at 5-6, Kyrgios sprayed a double fault deep to face triple set point. Kyrgios' second double fault of the game cost him the 44-minute opening set.

Raonic was in such a strong groove on serve midway through the second set, Kyrgios did not even move for successive aces that blurred by as the Canadian held for 3-2.

The turning point came at 4-4 in second set when Kyrgios slammed his racquet with such force it bounced over back wall into third row where a fan in a pale blue polo shirt picked it up and handed it back while balancing a glass of wine in his other hand. Kyrgios, who received a warning for racquet abuse and could have been defaulted had the racquet hurt anyone, came back with a backhand bolt down the line for break point.



A pair of screaming passing shots helped Kyrgios break for the first time for a 6-5 second-set lead. Closing with a flourish, Kyrgios cracked three aces to level the match in style.

Feeding off the emotional energy from the Aussie fanatics clad in green-and-gold and chanting "All about that ace" every time their man slammed another unreturnable serve, Kyrgios turned it up in the third-set tie break.

A wild Raonic forehand sailed giving his opponent the mini-break and a 3-2 advantage. Kyrgios slide a wide serve and backed it up with an ace for 5-2, than belted a backhand pass for set points. Cranking a second serve ace down the middle, he snatched the third set with a windmill fist pump.

The tennis showman pretty much lets everything else hang out. The free-spirited Aussie plays without a filter blurting our whatever crosses his mind, chattering to his support box, exhorting the Aussie fanatics and even stopping on a changeover to pose for a fan's photo. Some players don't even stop for photos after a match, this guy turns match play into a photo-op.

Kyrgios capped a superb day of shotmaking flashing a forehand winner down the line. He must get fitter and sharpen his shot selection, but if Kyrgios can get a bit more disciplined he has the game to go a long way at SW19—and spoke with the confidence of one who knows exactly what he's capable of achieving.

"I don't fear anyone. I definitely feel I'm playing better tennis than last year," Kyrgios said. "Whoever I play, I'm just gonna have the same mind-set: Serve well and play aggressive."