By Erik Gudris | Sunday, February 21, 2015
Nick Kyrgios capped off a stellar week in Marseille, including beating two top 10 players, en route to winning his first ever ATP title.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Australia’s Nick Kyrgios entered the Open 13 event in Marseille, France as an unseeded player. But he walked away Sunday with his first ever ATP title after an impressive week.
Kyrgios claimed his maiden ATP title with a stellar performance in the final against No. 4 seed Marin Cilic. Though it was only Kyrgios’ second ever ATP final, he played with experience and poise as if he had been in the final stage many times.
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Kyrgios, who knocked out top ten players Richard Gasquet and Tomas Berdych earlier in the week, started off strong in the opening set. The Aussie put pressure right away on Cilic’s big serve. Though Cilic fought off mulitple break points to hold early, he once again faced pressure in the third game.
A back and forth multiple deuce game finally went the way of Kyrgios. Holding yet another break point, Kyrgios hit a deep backhand that forced an error from Cilic. That gave Kyrgios a 2-1 lead.
Kyrgios with deep groundstrokes peppered in with acute angles frustrated Cilic throughout the set. Kyrgios, who committed only two unforced errors in the set, broke Clic again. Kyrgios soon ran away with the set 6-2.
Cilic sorted himself out in the second set by taking better care of his service games. Though he made little inroads into his opponent’s service games, Cilic kept things close.
Kyrgios, serving to stay in the set later at 5-4, found himself in trouble. Cilic hit a forehand winner to give him a rare break point and a set point. Kyrgios responded with an ace and then held for 5-all when CIlic overcooked a forehand.
The set eventually led to a tiebreak. The serving contest continued with each man holding easily. Kyrgios, fired down a second serve ace, that barely clipped the line keeping him level at 3-all.
Kyrgios then made his move. The Aussie hit an inside out forehand that drew an error from Cilic on the baseline. Kyrgios then pounced on a short Cilic serve with a deep backhand response. That created match points for Kyrgios.
With his 17th ace, Kyrgios completed the well-earned 6-2, 7-6(3) victory giving him his first ever ATP title.
“I came here not expecting to win it, Kyrgios said during the trophy ceremony. “It was tough field with players like Marin. I played really high quality all week and I enjoyed my week. This is one of my favorite places.”
Kyrgios did not drop a set all week and was never broken in 47 games during the week.
During the trophy ceremony, Kyrgios did manage to break out a little French to impress the crowd.
Kyrgios is projected to rise to No. 32 in the world with his results on Monday.