Who said serve-and-volley tennis was dead? Channelling the spirit of a bygone era, Nick Kyrgios showed an unwavering commitment to attack to confound Daniil Medvedev in Montreal, launching raid after daring raid on the forecourt as he defeated the world No 1 and defending champion 6-7 (2-7), 6-4, 6-2.
So often a man to fly by the seat of his pants, Kyrgios came into the contest with a carefully conceived game plan and – crucially if unsurprisingly, given that this was his 15th win in 16 matches – the conviction to see it through. That quality was never more apparent than when the Australian twice denied Medvedev a potentially decisive break early in the decider.
Subjected to an unrelenting blitz by an opponent who rushed the net behind his first and second serves throughout, Medvedev waited an hour and 35 minutes for his first break point to arrive. When it did, Kyrgios came gambolling forward to graze the sideline with an unreachable backhand volley. The frustrated glance the Russian cast towards his coach, Gilles Cervara, spoke volumes. A second opportunity was snuffed out by one of the dozen aces Kyrgios thundered down on the afternoon. Medvedev, one of the game’s most accomplished returners, would not have another.
This was a performance of genuine steel by Kyrgios, who shrugged off the disappointment of missing two set points in the opener to overcome a reigning world No 1 for the second time in his career, eight years after his famous victory against Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon. The 27-year-old has now won eight consecutive matches, following his first title run since 2019 in Washington last week.
Kyrgios is up to 31 in the world rankings, ensuring that he will be seeded when the US Open gets underway 18 days from now, and the manner in which he adapted his game to secure his third win in four meetings with Medvedev offered further evidence that he is operating at the height of his considerable powers. Buoyed by his run to the Wimbledon final, he will pose as big a threat as anyone to Medvedev’s hopes of retaining his crown at Flushing Meadows.
“I knew he was feeling confident, so I had to come out there with a game style that wasn’t going to give him too much rhythm,” said Kyrgios, who will face compatriot his Alex de Minaur in the next round.
“I served and volleyed pretty much every point. I’ve been serving well, volleying pretty well. I thought, ‘Why not completely switch it up?’ I returned really well today, too. Had two set points in the first set. I was right there from the get-go. So I’m really happy with the way I performed.
“It’s just one match, though, in the scheme of things. That’s tennis as well. This is not going to elevate my ranking into the top 10. It’s just one match, so I need to get ready for the next one.”
In the early stages, service games went by a rate of knots. Six games in, neither man had one won more than four points against the other’s delivery. Kyrgios completed one hold in 48 seconds, another in 47. Medvedev, full of confidence after winning his first title of the season in Los Cabos at the weekend, was similarly dominant. A tiebreak looked inevitable.
Kyrgios, however, had other ideas. When Medvedev, serving to stay in the set, betrayed a first hint of vulnerability with a double fault, the Australian rifled a backhand winner to reach deuce. Medvedev subsequently saved two set points with some clutch serving, which was the cue for Kyrgios to start chuntering discontentedly as he questioned the height of the bounce and complained about his opponent’s unerring ability to find the lines.
Medvedev required no further encouragement, romping through the ensuing breaker to take the lead. Now the spotlight was on Kyrgios. He had spoken beforehand of feeling mentally jaded after his recent exploits, and here was a lapse of focus and intensity to prove it. Instead of folding as he has done so often in the past, however, Kyrgios rallied patiently to gain a foothold in Medvedev’s first service game of the second set and then ripped a forehand pass to bring up two break points. Having converted the first, he never looked back.
“I just kind of reset,” said Kyrgios. “I looked at my team. You kind of see what we did last week. We had a great week. I kind of took the pressure off myself a little bit. I was like, Let’s just have a little bit of fun, free swing a little bit on returns.
“I ended up returning really well [in] the first game of the second set. Broke him. The momentum changed from that point on. I executed well on big points today. I feel like my game and my confidence under pressure is at an all-time high.”
That could be bad news for anyone with title pretensions.