Miracle, upset, upheaval or doom whatever you call it, but the loss of tennis ace Spaniard Rafael Nadal at the hands of the young Aussie Nick Kirgyos at Wimbledon few hours ago shouts much more than that.
Nick Kyrgios, an Australian teenager with no fear and a golden arm, blew the world No1, Rafael Nadal, off Centre Court in four extraordinary sets on Tuesday night to reach the quarter-finals on his Wimbledon debut.
Those bald facts alone are stunning. But Kyrgios’s nerveless performance, built on a serve to inspire fear and admiration, embroidered the occasion so completely with his free spirit and irresistible power that it was easy to ignore that Nadal hit 44 winners and only 18 unforced errors – stats to win most matches – and still could not subdue the youthful charge of a wildcard ranked 144 in the world. The aces just kept coming, like the rigged reel of a fruit machine. By the end, there were 37 of them next to his name, delivered to all parts of the box, regardless of circumstance, with and without spin or swerve, at various speeds up to 133mph. This, clearly, was a young man in a hurry.
The Aussie, in only his second grand slam and first time playing a top three opponent, fired down an incredible 37 aces compared to the No 2 seeds 11. The 19 year-old also made 31 unforced errors in comparison to Nadal’s 18. While his ace tally was impressive, the huge 70 winners against Nadal’s 44 ultimately tell the whole story. Kyrgios was hitting and making every shot while Nadal could only break his opponent once the entire match. In fact there were only two breaks of serve throughout with Kyrgios winning the tie crucial tie-breaks in the first and third.
Well there had been speculations going on for quite some time about someone breaking into the top 4 of men’s tennis horizon and by the looks of it appears that that Nick is just the guy.