PETE ZIEBRON
Nick Kyrgios advances to the 2nd round in Cincinnati
Nick Kyrgios hit six of his thirty-nine aces in the final set tiebreaker as he defeated Dennis Kudla 6-7(2) 7-5 7-6(9) to advance to the second round of Western & Southern Open in Mason, Ohio.
Kyrgios reached the final last year and it appeared that he would have an early exit as he dropped the opening set to the American and had issues with his mobility. None of the twelve service games in the opening set reached deuce and Kudla even managed to win 82% of his second serves in the first stanza.
The 15th seeded Australian called for the trainer early in the second set and had even more tape added to his right knee. However, considering his lack of mobility, Kyrgios still manager to hit 14 aces in the second set. In the twelfth game of the set, Kyrgios was able to secure three break points and finally converted on the third to break Kudla in what would go on to be the only break of the match.
Kyrgios opened the final set, reaching deuce but avoided trouble by hitting two aces to close out the first game. Comparable to the opening set, none of the last eleven games of the final set reached deuce and it was on to the tiebreak.
Kyrgios appeared to be in command of the breaker as he won the first point on his serve, earned a mini-break and then hit two aces to take a 4-1 lead. Each player won their next two service points and Kyrgios held three match points at 6-3. After Kudla won the next two points on his serve, Kyrgios had the match on his racquet at 6-5 but proceeded to lose the point and the breaker was squared at six points all.
The point of the match occurred when Kyrgios hit a second serve ace at 133 MPH when he was down match point at 7-8. He followed that up with another ace to lead 9-8. Kudla would follow with an ace of his own to make it nine all as the players once again changed sides. Kyrgios would steal the next point before finally closing out the match to take the breaker 11-9.
Next up for Kyrgios is Croatian Born Coric. The two met in 2016 in Cincinnati, where Kyrgios held a match point but failed to close out that match.
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