ATP Acapulco: Rafael Nadal has been warned about Nick Kyrgios
A real hit match already takes place in the second round of the ATP Tour 500 tournament in Acapulco: tournament favorite Rafael Nadal meets Nick Kyrgios.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Feb 27, 2019, 11:50 am
An incredible 70 places are between Rafael Nadal and Nick Kyrgios in the current ATP world rankings: while the Spaniard only knows Novak Djokovic, Kyrgios has dropped to position 72 after a mixed season in 2018. So no good conditions for the Australian before the second round at the ATP Tour 500 tournament in Acapulco.
Although the record against Nadal does not look that bad: there have been five encounters between the two so far, in the very first 2014 in Wimbledon Nick Kyrgios made something of his debut on the really big tennis stage. And Nadal said goodbye in four sentences.
Balanced balance 2019 for Kyrgios
Most recently, Nadal and Kyrgios met on three occasions in 2017. Kyrgios won in two sets in Cincinnati, as did Nadal in Madrid and Beijing. The 17-time major champion was very satisfied after his opening win against Mischa Zverev, especially since Nadal had problems with his striking hand in the days before the match. Kyrgios is one of the most talented players on the tour and of course a big challenge, according to the Mallorcan after his match.
The 2019 season is not yet running smoothly for the 23-year-old from Canberra. With his first-round success against Andreas Seppi, Kyrgios was able to balance his annual balance at 3: 3. In Brisbane the second round ended against Jeremy Chardy, Milos Raonic as a start at the Australian Open naturally fell into the category "very unfortunate". Most recently in Delray Beach, Kyrgios had to say goodbye to Radu Albot. In retrospect, no shame - after all, the man from Moldova won his first career title afterwards.