‘This was one of my best ever matches on clay,’ Nick Kyrgios reminisces about his ‘love’ for clay and continues his dream run in Houston
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Nick Kyrgios
Nick Kyrgios, who quite visibly hates clay, has now won back-to-back matches on the red dirt. He blasted past 7th seed Tommy Paul in the second round of ATP Houston in straight sets 6-4,6-2 to enter the quarterfinals. Kyrgios made it clear that this will be the only clay-court tournament he’ll be playing this season and will take a couple of months off before a packed grass-court season.
His first-round victory against Mackenzie McDonald was his first victory on clay in almost 3 years and was a hard-fought one. But his Round of 16 victory against Paul was pretty convincing. After the match, Kyrgios praised his opponent and emphasized how his serve was the key. He also added that it was one of the best matches on clay for him.
“He’s a very good player. He’s young and he’s already shown what he can do and who he can beat,” Kyrgios said in his on-court interview. “I had to be locked in today and I knew that I had to serve well. It’s probably one of the better matches I’ve played on clay in my career, so I’m pretty happy with the way I came out here today, just put my head down and went to work. I’ve been serving really well, so I just wanted to keep to good habits.”
Nick Kyrgios to end clay season undefeated?
Nick Kyrgios will now face lucky loser Michael Mmoh in the quarterfinals on Friday. The Aussie will definitely be the favorite to win the match and then could go on to face 3rd seed Reilly Opelka in a blockbuster semifinal clash.
Kyrgios is one of the huge favorites to win the tournament and if he tackles Opelka, he is expected to face Miami Open champion Taylor Fritz in the final. He thus could realistically end his clay-court season undefeated.
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Lakshya Chopra
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