ATP: match point against yourself? Hold my beer!
Nick Kyrgios is already the fifth tournament winner on the ATP Tour 2022, who had to fend off at least one match point on the way to the title.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Aug 09, 2022, 08:40 am
One thing was clear even before Sunday's final of the ATP Tour 500 tournament in Washington, which Nick Kyrgios won 6: 4 and 6: 3 against Yoshihito Nishioka: The champion in the US capital has the Path to triumph has faced defeat at least once. In the case of Kyrgios even: five times. The Australian had to parry that many match points against Frances Tiafoe in the quarter-finals.
But for Nishioka, too, the tournament could have ended much earlier. Because in round one, Alex de Minaur, who had arrived from Atlanta as the newly crowned champion, was just one point away from throwing Nishioka off the grid. So it became Nick Kyrgios, as the fifth tournament winner in 2022, who was able to fend off a match point in the course of a tournament.
Alcaraz was also close to the end
Incidentally, the first colleague in this series is Thanasi Kokkinakis, who came close to a frustrating defeat in the second event in Adelaide in the final against Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech. And yet the rudder snapped. The next to achieve this feat was Joao Sousa in Pune. Then it got hairy in the semifinals against Mikael Ymer.
And even for Carlos Alcaraz, probably the climber of the season, it got hairy in Barcelona: There Alex de Minaur (again - see above) was unable to take two chances in the semi-finals to stop the 19-year-old local hero. And that at your own serve!
The last man before Kyrgios to win the trophy at an ATP tournament after defending a match point was Lorenzo Musetti in Hamburg. In round one against Dusan Lajovic it looked like an early end. After that, however, Musetti only lost one set at Rothenbaum – in the final against Carlos Alcaraz.