On Saturday, Nick Kyrgios defeated fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in a tough 6-7(2), 6-4, 6-3, 7-6(7) triumph to go to the fourth round at Wimbledon for the first time since 2016.
Kyrgios won his first major match against a Top 10 opponent since the third round of The Championships in 2015; he will next face American Brandon Nakashima.
The 27-year-old will attempt to advance to his first major quarterfinal since the 2015 Australian Open and third overall.
After the first set, when Kyrgios objected to a linesperson’s call on the baseline, the tension started to rise.
The Australian spoke frequently with the chair umpire, the fans, and his player’s box during the remainder of the game.
In the first-set tie-break, Tsitsipas was the more reliable player, as Kyrgios allowed his lack of focus to impair his performance. The 27-year-old lost focus and spent a lot of time venting his annoyance between points and during changeovers as a result of the second set. Additionally, there were a lot more people on No. 1 Court than usual for Wimbledon.
After another linesperson reported the incident to the chair umpire, the Australian subsequently received an audio obscenity warning.
However, despite playing rapidly and relying heavily on his powerful serve throughout, the World No. 40 was able to keep pace with the fourth seed on the scoreboard.
As the players made their way to their chairs, Tsitsipas stabbed a backhand low into the crowd in frustration, narrowly missing fans with the ball.
During the third set, the conversation persisted, and Tsitsipas lost focus. As a result, his play deteriorated, and Kyrgios advanced with a break at 2-1 on the strength of a forehand winner to take the match. Kyrgios threw an underhanded serve later on in the set.
When Tsitsipas finally got to the ball, he smashed it hard into the net behind the court, earning him a point penalty. After three hours and 16 minutes, Kyrgios eventually won.
