Rafael Nadal experienced a tough test in the Indian Wells quarterfinals. The Spaniard refused to lose for the first time in 2022 after beating Nick Kyrgios 7-6, 5-7, 6-4 in two hours and 46 minutes. Nadal advanced to his 76th Masters 1000 semifinal and secured his 19th victory in as many meetings this season.
Kyrgios gave his best against a higher ranked opponent, as always in the past. The Australian served in the opening set and only suffered two breaks to push the opponent to the limit. Nadal remained calm and prevailed with a break in the final set that took him to the semifinals.
Rafa gained just two more points than Nick, and there was nothing to separate them in the shorter, more advanced exchanges. Kyrgios threw six more service winners than Nadal. However, that wasn’t enough to bring him home despite an excellent performance in his first Masters 1000 quarterfinal since Cincinnati 2017.
After wasting chances on him in the first set, the Australian lost the tie break 7-0 and completely collapsed. Still, he stayed focused on the rest of the match, despite throwing his racket and arguing with the chair umpire.
Nadal committed a double fault in the third game of the match to suffer a break and put his rival ahead. Nick held after the deuce with powerful forehands in the next to confirm the lead and opened a 4-2 gap with a thunderous ace down the T-line in the sixth game.
The Australian hit a forehand game winner in the eighth game and served to open the scoring at 5-4. Nadal earned the first break opportunity of the match at the last moment and took advantage of it after the opponent’s weak forehand to equalize the score at 5-5 and lengthen the battle.
Losing ground in those moments, Nick lost the tie break 7-0 after a code violation and a penalty point.
Kyrgios on playing for Australia again
With no beating around the bush, Nick Kyrgios has finally explained the reasons behind him giving the recently concluded Davis Cup a miss.
“Maybe if Australia embraced me a little bit more, I would play for it and bring home the trophy,” Kyrgios said. “At this point of my career, I’ll always do what’s best for me. I can travel around the world playing exhibitions around this time of year for six figures.
I feel I put myself in that position, so it’s an easy one for me. I’ll easily take time with my family and my girlfriend and enjoy experiences around the world and earn that type of money rather than playing a week away in something where I wouldn’t be able to be with my girlfriend and I’m not getting paid that well,” he added.
“That doesn’t really make sense to me and my progression as an athlete. Maybe, who knows? Adding another week in Europe in Malaga wasn’t really what was on my wish list. If it was in Australia, maybe it would have been a different story.
It’s not always easy for me to erase everything in Australia that’s said negatively about me or my family. So it’s interesting that they really want me to play, but are always criticizing,” he added.
