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Madrid Open: Nick Kyrgios sends Roger Federer packing in second round
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Roger Federer became the latest member of the Big Four to be trampled by Nick Kyrgios as the Australian tyro sent the Swiss No1 seed spinning out of the Madrid Masters in the second round on Wednesday.
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Ten months after the then 144th-ranked Kyrgios overwhelmed Rafael Nadal in the Wimbledon fourth round with a fearless brand of tennis, the Australian showed he is also a force to be reckoned with on clay. Next up he will face John Isner of the US.
Now ranked 35th, Kyrgios ended Federer’s hopes of winning a fourth Madrid trophy with a heart-pumping 6-7, 7-6, 7-6 victory. “I think he’s the greatest of all time. I knew before the match that I would have to play one of the greatest matches I have ever played, I wasn’t intimidated at all,” the 20-year-old said after his victory in two hours 37 minutes.
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“I have a lot of respect for him. It was just another tennis match, it was a chance to go out there and enjoy yourself and I happened to get the win.”
As Kyrgios celebrated, Federer suffered his earliest departure in 11 visits to Madrid. On the day he had hoped to celebrate the first birthday of his twin boys, Lenny and Leo, with a routine victory, the world No2 was first rankled when Kyrgios broke him in the opening game of the match.
The irritation went up a few notches when the second set slipped away under a barrage of aces and crunching baseline winners. Facing an opponent who was only eight when he won the first of his record 17 grand slam titles in 2003, Federer also wasted two match points in the tension-filled third set tiebreak.
Kyrgios was the one holding his arms aloft in victory after he wrapped up the contest on his sixth match point when Federer slammed a forehand wide.
“My problem was I couldn’t return his first serve,” Federer said. “I had a horrible performance on return of serve. As the match went on, it got so bad that I just couldn’t get into decent positions on the return. So it made it very difficult to get any sort of rhythm after that.
“I’m very disappointed by that. That’s what cost me the match, in my opinion. But credit to him for serving well and keep doing what he was doing. He’s got a wonderful serve, good potential, so I hope he keeps working hard and that he can compete for the best spots in tennis.”
Nadal’s season has been full of lows, the Spaniard having won only one title in 2015, but he avoided any drama here with a 6-4, 6-3 win over the American Steve Johnson.
He was joined in the third round by Tomas Berdych and the No10 seed Grigor Dimitrov but the US Open champion Marin Cilic followed Federer out of the door after a 6-7, 7-6, 6-3 defeat by Fernando Verdasco.