Nick Kyrgios maintains red-hot form to defeat Alex de Minaur and storm into the Canadian Masters quarterfinals.
Montreal, USA , 12 August 2022 | Vivienne Christie
Montreal, Canada
Nick Kyrigos has underlined his status as one of the game’s most in-form players in the North American hard-court season, after storming into the quarterfinals of the Canadian Masters.
Kyrgios required little more than an hour to overcome fellow Australian Alex de Minaur 6-2 6-3, marking his ninth straight match win and his 15th win from his past 16 matches.
The only downside for Kyrgios in another imperious performance was that it came at the expense of a good friend and countryman.
“Today was really hard mentally for me to go out here and play Alex. We’re such good friends,” said Kyrgios following the first ATP-level match between the two Australians.
“He’s been having such a good career so far and carrying the Australian flag for so long. It was just tough mentally. It’s never easy to play a friend like that, especially if they’re Australian.”
A Kyrgi-diculous performance 😲@NickKyrgios defeats De Minaur 6-2 6-3 and is 21-3 since June!#OBN22 pic.twitter.com/7icinULMDi
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) August 11, 2022
Still, there was no mercy from Kyrgios, especially early in the straight-sets win.
In a statement start, Kyrgios claimed a double break of serve to race to a 4-0 lead in just 11 minutes.
While De Minaur eventually settled with a first service hold, Kyrgios had won 17 of the first 21 points. He maintained that momentum to claim the first set 6-2 in 23 minutes.
It was a slightly more challenging second set for the 27-year-old, who claimed an opening break of serve but couldn’t consolidate.
But recovery was swift as Kyrgios immediately gained another break of serve and broke again soon afterwards to take a 6-2 5-2 lead.
While it took two more games for Kyrgios to serve it out, it was ultimately an untroubled progression for the recent Wimbledon finalist.
Firing eight aces, he won 18 of 23 first serve points and hit 25 winners against nine unforced errors.
The latest victory followed his upset of world No.1 Daniil Medvedev yesterday, Kyrgios encouraged that he could maintain the winning momentum.
“(It was) pretty tough,” Kyrgios admitted. “After yesterday’s big high, obviously playing Daniil, and the crowd was amazing. It was a day I’ll probably never ever forget.”
Kyrgios set a quarterfinal with…
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