What do you do when you’re 19 years old, ranked No144, playing just your second grand slam and you’ve just beaten the world No1?
Nick Kyrgios certainly didn’t know. He turned around to face his family after pulling off the mother of all upsets, in disbelief over his stunning victory over Rafael Nadal in the last 16 stage at Wimbledon.
“I didn’t really know what to do. Fall to the ground, drop the racquet?” the Australian teenager said moments after his victory.
“It still hasn't sunk in yet. I was just overwhelmed with every feeling out there. I turned to my whole box, just shared that moment with them.”
He ended up doing a dance which he calls the “Juicy Wiggle” and it’s a moment he will undoubtedly remember for the rest of his life.
Playing just his second career grand slam main draw, Kyrgios struck 70 winners en route to a 7-6 (5), 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-3 over two-time Wimbledon champion Nadal, to become the first player ranked outside the top-100 to defeat a world No1 at a Grand Slam since No193 Andrei Olhovskiy defeated Jim Courier at Wimbledon in 1992.
He’s also the first player in 10 years to reach the men’s quarter-finals on his Wimbledon debut and the lowest-ranked player to every defeat Nadal at a major.
“That's the biggest win of my career and that's something I'm never going to forget,” said Kyrgios.
“I'm going to draw so much confidence out of that no matter where I play now. To have that under my belt – it's massive.”
Kyrgios was shockingly confident and aggressive from the get-go, showing zero signs of the huge gulf in experience and ranking between him and Nadal.
He had said before the match that he had nothing to lose and the young Aussie certainly played like it, blasting huge serves and giving Nadal no chances to break throughout the entire first set, which he took in a tiebreak.
The Canberra native made sure he took in his first experience on Wimbledon Centre Court and he got the crowd roaring when he hit a between-the-legs winner in the seventh game of the second set.
Kyrgios was so clinical, that it took him one hour and 32 minutes before he dropped his first point on his first serve. He was 37 out of 37 on first serve points until the 12th game of the second set, which is where Nadal got his first and only break of the match to make it one-set-all.
Nadal had dropped his opening set in each of his first three rounds at Wimbledon and a similar scenario was expected after her drew level but Kyrgios never slowed down, and even though his first serve percentage went down, he was still hitting aces and massive sharp-angled groundstrokes.
Kyrgios once again capitalised on a tiny window in the third set tiebreak to take a two sets to one lead and he finally earned a service break in the fourth game of the fourth, sending Nadal wide outside the court with a backhand, which the Spaniard was unable to return.
Kyrgios sealed the upset with an ace, his 37th of the day, on his first match point to send Nadal packing.
Nadal hit 41 winners and a mere 18 unforced errors throughout the match and admits his level was not bad.
“That's the sport in this surface. I felt in a way I am even not angry today because I feel that I lost the match losing only one time my serve during the whole match. I created my opportunities. But I was not able to read his serve during the whole match,” said the Mallorcan.
“I am satisfied the way that I played this Wimbledon. Is true that my draw was not the best one. All the matches were uncomfortable against players that didn't give you the opportunity to play a lot.
“I fought until the end in every single match. I was able to play some good tennis on this surface. That's something that I was not able to do in the last two years.”
Kyrgios will have to keep his emotions in check as he has to get back on court today to face No8 seed Milos Raonic – a 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(4), 6-3 winner over Kei Nishikori – for a spot in the semi-finals.
Earlier in the day Swiss duo Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka each earned a straight sets victory to set up a quarter-final against one another today.
Federer breezed past Spaniard Tommy Robredo 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 while Wawrinka brought his best serving game to overcome Feliciano Lopez 7-6(5), 7-6(7), 6-3. Wawrinka will be playing for a third consecutive day after rain messed up his schedule but the world No3 says he’s up for the challenge.
