How's that for symmetry? The last time a teenager upset the world No. 1 at a Grand Slam, it was Rafael Nadal beating Roger Federer at the 2005 French Open.
Kyrgios turned 19 in April and will be the highest ranked teenager through the 2015 Australian Open and beyond. Though he has the swagger and style of a teenager (see his hair, necklace and penchant for theatrics) he also has the poise of a player who's been in the top 10 for years. And, no, that's not a tattoo. It's kinesio tape.
2. It's Rafael Nadal's third-straight loss before the Wimbledon quarterfinals.
(Getty Images)
Nadal's recent struggles on grass have been well documented. He was 0-3 in his last three grass matches entering Wimbledon and struggled in each of his three wins prior to Tuesday. Still, like those other matches, no one saw this coming.
But unlike the 2012 defeat to Lukas Rosol (No. 100) and the 2013 upset by Steve Darcis (No. 125), this wasn't a journeyman scoring the upset of his life. It was the arrival of a star-in-the-making. The story isn't that Nadal lost (again) but that Kyrgios, a 19-year-old phenom, won. Rafa didn't even play poorly! In that way, this defeat was a lot like the Rosol loss.
Most of the time, favorites go out when they lose a match. Very rarely do the underdogs grab it from them. (Think of many recent Serena Williams' losses.) Kyrgios, like Rosol before him, did just that. Nadal was hitting his spots, had his groundstrokes corking and didn't get broken until the fourth set. But he couldn't adapt to the big serve of Kyrgios and the youngster barely blinked when he had to serve out the match in the fourth.
3. Kyrgios saved nine match points in a second-round win over Richard Gasquet.
(Getty Images)
The only reason Kyrgios played Nadal is because he somehow survived his match with Gasquet. Those nine saved match points are a Wimbledon record. Oh, and Kyrgios was down two sets in that match too. And Gasquet is no slouch either — he's a top-10 player.
4. Prior to Wimbledon, Kyrgios' best win was against the world No. 52.
(Getty Images)
That came at least year's French Open, when he beat Radek Stepanek. Kyrgios' best win in 2014 was against No. 81 Donald Young. In this year alone, he's lost to players ranked No. 352, No. 165, No. 158 and No. 102. He has won three Challenger tournaments this year, but almost all those matches came against players with triple-digit rankings.
5. This was the first time since 1992 that a player ranked outside the top 100 defeated a No. 1 player.
(AP)
Kyrgios isn't ranked No. 144 because he fell on rough times and slipped in the rankings. His current ranking is actually his career high! Given his Wimbledon run, Kyrgios will leap to No. 66. (He'll go even higher if he beats Milos Raonic in Wednesday's quarterfinal.) The next highest-ranked teenager is Borna Coric. He's ranked No. 243.
6. This is the first time a player born in the 1990s has defeated Nadal.
(Reuters)
That means no one under the age of 24 has ever beat Rafa, which is a crazy statistic that speaks to both Nadal's dominance against lower-ranked players and the increasing age of the top players in the sport.
7. Even his mom didn't think Kyrgios was going to win.
(AP)
"I saw in an interview my mom said [Nadal] was too good," he told the BBC after the match. "That made me a little bit angry."
Though Kyrgios' father and sister were at Wimbledon, his mom, Norlaila, stays home because she gets too nervous. In fact, she probably didn't even see her son defeat the 14-time Grand Slam champ. She says she relies family members to relay updates.
8. His serve is his biggest weapon.
(AP)
Kyrgios fired 37 aces against Nadal and has more than 100 through his first four matches at Wimbledon. He showed no fear versus the top player in the world, sometimes booming second serves in excess of 120 mph. It's reminiscent of another Australian of Greek descent, Mark Philippoussis.
9. He hit this shot.
Like we said: Swaggy.
0 comments:
Post a Comment