No respect, no fear and no first gear caused one of the biggest upsets in Wimbledon history. Nick Kyrgios, 19-years-old with an ear stud, a pattern shaved into his hair, an aboriginal tattoo down the inside of his left arm and the world number one scalp of Rafa Nadal now on his belt, swept through Centre Court making a mockery of his wild card status and world ranking of 144.
“I think I was in a bit of a zone out there,” said Kyrios. “That’s something I’m never going to forget. I’m going to draw confidence from that wherever I play.”
Nerveless Kyrgios, who survived nine match points in the previous round, ripped into the world number one to win 7-6 (7/5), 5-7, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3, the crowd rising to the newcomer’s chutzpah and verve but also bitter sweetly mourning the exit of the two times Wimbledon champion and 14 times Grand Slam winner Nadal.
While the Spaniard had not reached the quarter-finals here since 2011, there was little intelligence on the heights to which Kyrgios could rise. He came into the match as the youngest player in the men’s draw but even so from the beginning of the match he was able to make Nadal feel that he posed a significant threat.
Kyrgios had an uncanny ability to move on from every point, freshly picking up where he left off, Nadal never working out his serve and the teenager fearlessly carving the ball around the court.
World ranking
Last year the Australian improved his world ranking from 828 to 186. His wildcard entry was handed to him after winning the grass court Nottingham Challenger as a qualifier. The previous week he had lost in the first round of another Challenger event, a tournament two levels below that of a Grand Slam.
“The last guy I saw like this was Boris Becker,” said John McEnroe. “He showed no fear and said whatever happens I’m going to be better than him.”
Kyrgios is the first teenager ranked outside the top 100 to defeat a world number one since Andrei Olhovskiy beat Jim Courier in the third round 22 years ago.
Nadal arrived reporting no issues with his long-troublesome knees and a ninth French Open title but he was unable to impose his usual grinding game. Kyrgios also admitted he gained motivation after hearing his mother Norlaila give an interview back in Australia admitting Nadal was the better player.
‘Bit angry’
“I saw an interview with her saying he was too good, so that made me a bit angry and that helped!” he joked.
Kyrgios won the first set on a tiebreak but when Nadal levelled 1-1, it appeared he had a grip on his irreverent opponent. The third set went to another tiebreak, again falling to Kyrgios 7-6, his service games delivering between 76 per cent and 100 per cent of the time.
The fourth set was simple when it should have shaken Kyrgios. One break of Nadal’s serve was enough and he served out, an ace on match point almost fixing the disbelieving world number one to the grass.
“I didn’t play very bad. In the second set and the third set I was better than him but I was not able to convert. For the rest he played better than me. He did the things to win better than me,” said Nadal.
Kyrgios meets Canadian eighth seed Milos Raonic in the quarter-final. He sees more fun ahead.
“Today my serve was something that got me over the line,” said Kyrgios. “It still hasn’t hit me what I’ve done. I’m just going to stay grounded. I’m going to go out there (against Raonic) and have fun again.”
