Carlos Alcaraz to CNN: ‘I’m playing unbelievable tennis’
This report has been updated to reflect the final score at the Australian Open.
NEW YORK — If Nick Kyrgios were a member of the United States Tennis Association, he would be getting ready to play a one-hour, 35-minute doubles match in which he and his partner would both serve 12 aces, seven aces and six aces with one another.
His partner would make four unforced errors during the entire match and the one-time No. 1 player would miss six return points in the first set and five in the second.
Even with those conditions, Kyrgios, 20, would win the match in the most unusual match of his life.
“I’m playing unbelievable tennis,” Kyrgios said Friday night after his second-round win over Felipe Melo. “It’s a totally different experience from where I was coming in. The last couple of weeks, I haven’t been able to feel any pressure. After seeing how I play, I don’t think I can beat anyone in this tournament. I know it’s an amazing tournament, but I’m just going out there and playing. I’m not going to change anything.”
Kyrgios, a 6-foot-3 left-hander, never won a match at the Australian Open so the dream started by watching his father, Lino, play for the country was almost lost to the world’s best ranked men’s singles player on Friday night.
Instead, Nick spent the afternoon thinking about what his father would have told him on his birthday four years ago — as it turns out, Kyrgios would have won that match.
Kyrgios will play his father’s younger brother Felipe Melo in a third-round match Saturday in Melbourne.
Nick Kyrgios to a man with a big heart, “That’s what my dad would say. He’s been in the best shape of anybody that I know.