By Richard Pagliaro | Saturday, August 6, 2022
Nick Kyrgios cracked 10 aces muting Mikael Ymer 7-6(4), 6-3 to advance to his second Washington, DC final in style.
Photo credit: Patrick Smith/Getty
A night after Nick Kyrios took fans on a wild thrill ride, he kept the party pumping in Washington, DC.
Kyrgios amped up the volume on his screaming serve muting Mikael Ymer 7-6(4), 6-3 to advance to his second Washington, DC final in style.
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The Wimbledon finalist nearly crashed his 10th ace off the back blue wall to close a one hour, 34-minute triumph.
The 2019 champion fought off five match points in the second-set tie-break out-dueling hometown hero Frances Tiafoe 6-7(5), 7-6(12), 6-2 in a night match that ended early Saturday morning.
Showing no signs of physical hangover after defeating Reilly Opelka and Tiafoe yesterday, Kyrgios' forehand flew on him at times early in the match, but his serve was rock solid. Kyrgios served 71 percent, won 15 of 19 second-serve points and did not face a break point in the match.
The victory vaults Kyrgios back to the Top 50 at No. 50 in the live rankings.
Kyrgios will play for his seventh career title and first since he raised the 2019 Washington DC championship in tomorrow's final against surprise finalist Yoshihito Nishioka.
Playing his first Tour-level semifinal since the 2020 Delray Beach, the left-handed Nishioka toppled top-seeded Andrey Rublev 6-3, 6-4 on the strength of three breaks in the Russian's final four service games.
World No. 96 Nishioka continues a remarkable run that has seen him take down No. 11 seed Alex de Minaur, No. 7 seed Karen Khachanov and No. 16 seed Daniel Evans before beating world No. 8 Rublev for his first Top 10 win of the season.
Kyrgios is 3-0 vs. Nishioka, including a 6-2, 7-5 win in the 2019 Citi Open round of 16 en route to the title.
Neither Kyrgios nor Ymer managed a break point in a tight opening set that escalated into a tiebreaker.
The 115th-ranked Ymer attacked and spun a forehand into the open court regaining the mini-break for 3-4.
Deadlocked at 4-all, the pair played the longest point of the match with Kyrgios sliding several slices to draw a floating reply and go up 5-4.
A serve winner wide and leaping smash down the line helped Kyrgios close the 55-minute first set.
A pair of errors wrapped around a double fault saw Ymer face the first break points of the match in the eighth game of set two. The Swede saved the first with a net-cord drive that landed on the line and dodged the second break point when Kyrgios missed a backhand down the line.
Angling off a series of crosscourt backhands, Kyrgios drew another error for a third break point.
The counter-punching Ymer tried to flip the script attacking net. The Swede made two superb stretch volleys, but Kyrgios buzzed a pass by his outstretched racquet earning the first break for 5-3.
Kyrgios cranked his final ace to wrap up the win and raise his 2022 record to 26-7.