Sunday, 4 August 2019:
 | | NICK KYRGIOS of Australia plays a backhand against Rogerio Dutra Silva of Brazil of the 2018 Australian Open at Melbourne Park in Australia. | |
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The Nick Kyrgios experience was in full effect at the Washington Open as he survived going "a bit nuts" and a match point to defeat top seed Stefanos Tsitipas in a thrilling semi-final.
The mercurial Kyrgios put on a show for the sold-out centre-court crowd throughout the 6-4 3-6 7-6 (9-7) victory on Saturday evening.
Barring a second-set meltdown after being up a break, Kyrgios played brilliant tennis in his first career meeting with Tsitsipas to improve his record against top 10 players to 4-1 this year.
"In the first set I was playing pretty clinical tennis, playing really well," Kyrgios said.
"I obviously went a bit nuts (in the second) and somehow was able to pull in back in the third set."
Kyrgios hammed it up by delivering a repaired sneaker to his opponent, celebrated one key shot with a shimmy and marked the final point by seeking out the advice of a fan for where to direct his serve, for the second night in row.
"I just go there and I ask them where they want me to serve. And it's two-for-two," Kyrgios said.
On Sunday the big-serving Australian will face third-seeded Daniil Medvedev after the Russian cruised to a 6-2 6-2 win over Peter Gojowczyk in the late match.
Kyrgios will supplant Alex de Minaur as Australia's highest-ranked male once again when the updated rankings are released on Monday, just three weeks before the US Open.
The 24-year-old will jump up the rankings to at least world No.34 with Tsitsipas to rise to fifth.
Each man won 91 points, each won 48 of his 58 first-serve points, each 16 of his 33 second-serve points.
"Nick, in my opinion, is underrated. I guess the rivalry between me and him, it looks bright," Tsitsipas said.
In the third set, the shoe issues that have been plaguing Tsitsipas cropped up again to create a comical scene in which Kyrgios retrieved his opponent's footwear from the stands and carried it across the court to his opponent.
Kyrgios presented them on bended knee, with head bowed, as Tsitipas smiled - to the delight of the crowd.
"I just wanted to speed the process up," Kyrgios said in his post-match press conference.
The concluding tiebreaker was a roller coaster which Kyrgios led 5-2, saved a match point at 5-6 before ultimately securing the win with a forehand winner.
Kyrgios is most definitely a showman, someone who does the sorts of things few, if any other tennis players do, for better or for worse.
"Some people love him, some people hate him. I believe we need people like him in the game," Tsitsipas said.
"Otherwise everything becomes too serious. He's fun."
