Cincinnati: Australia’s Nick Kyrgios blasted new world No. 1 Rafael Nadal 6-2, 7-5 on Friday, winning twice in one day to reach the Cincinnati Masters semi-finals.
Kyrgios stole the show by overpowering the 15-time Grand Slam champion after each had won earlier.
“A kid playing Nadal on centre court, that’s where your best has to come out,” Kyrgios said. “Performance like today, I’m seeing progress.”
Kyrgios, ranked 23rd, faces Spain’s David Ferrer for a finals berth. Bulgaria’s 11th-ranked Grigor Dimitrov plays American John Isner in Saturday’s other semi-final.
Nadal, who won his 10th French Open title in June, was assured of moving into the top ranking on Monday for the first time since July 2014 when Roger Federer withdrew from Cincinnati with a back injury.
Kyrgios was up a double break in 10 minutes, seizing the chance to make a between-the-legs showoff shot on his way to a 4-0 lead, drawing boos from the crowd.
“I was just doing it for a gag,” Kyrgios said. “I just felt like doing it. My friends who were watching were laughing so they liked it I guess.”
He took the first set in 25 minutes, dropping only three points on his serve, then broke Nadal in the fifth game of the second set. The Aussie served for the match in the 10th game but double faulted on his third match point and Nadal broke back.
“I had the match on my racket and tightened up,” Kyrgios said.
But the 22-year-old broke again to lead 6-5 and this time end matters with his 10th ace after 80 minutes, improving to 2-2 all-time against the 31-year-old Spaniard.
“I started the match very low and I played a very bad game in the second set when he break me,” Nadal said. “I was able to get some points and get back in the match but then I played a terrible game. It was a bad match for me. Congrats to him.”
Nadal took only 6-of-20 second serve points and won only five off his foe’s first serve.
“No excuses. Nothing at all,” Nadal said. “If I don’t play well I can’t win against a player like Nick.”
Earlier, Kyrgios defeated Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic 4-6, 7-6 (8/6), 6-3 and Nadal downed compatriot Albert Ramos-Vinolas 7-6 (7/1), 6-2 in rain-postponed matches.
Kyrgios, who matched his best ATP Masters runs from Miami the past two years, seeks his fourth career title after 2016 trophies at Marseille, Atlanta and Tokyo.
And he served notice for the US Open, where he has never reached the fourth round. The year’s last Grand Slam starts August 28.
Ferrer upset Austria’s eighth-ranked Dominic Thiem 6-3, 6-3 while Isner fired 25 aces in beating American wildcard Jared Donaldson 7-6 (7/4), 7-5 and Dimitrov downed Japan’s Yuichi Sugita 6-2, 6-1.
Meanwhile Nadal, who returns to the world No. 1 one ranking on Monday for the first time in three years, remains “destroyed” by the terror attacks that rocked his homeland.
He wore black ribbons during an earlier match in tribute to the victims of twin vehicle ramming attacks in Spain that left 14 dead. A driver ploughed his van through crowds on Barcelona’s busy Las Ramblas boulevard on Thursday, and early Friday a car struck pedestrians in the Catalan seaside resort of Cambrils.
“What happened is terrible. Everybody is destroyed in Spain, including, of course, me,” Nadal said on Friday. “Yeah, it’s a tragedy, the feeling that you are not safe in nowhere. That’s terrible. So just very sad.
“I’m very, very sorry about what happened to all the victims, all the families, friends. Yeah, all my support. It’s the moment to be together like a country and all the being together, we go for these kind of things.”
Spanish rival Albert Ramos-Vinolas and Wimbledon women’s champion Garbine Muguruza also wore black ribbons.
“All my support to Barcelona and especially to the people that are suffering a lot, for all the families of the victims,” Nadal said. “Just keep going and sorry for everything.”
Nadal, a 15-time Grand Slam champion, won his 10th French Open title in June and enters the year’s final Grand Slam event, which starts August 28 in New York, thrilled at being back atop the rankings after knee injuries and setbacks since he was last number one back in July 2014.
“Amazing, positive news,” Nadal said. “Being number one after all the things I’ve been going through the last couple of years is something unbelievable, so for me it’s an amazing achievement to be back to that position.
“I’m very happy for that and in the last most important event of the season, I need to show why I am in that position now.
“So I’m going to work hard to show myself why I’m there. I’m going to try my best to play at the highest level possible in New York.”
Nadal plans to rest through the weekend, then resume workouts for the final week before the Flushing Meadows fortnight begins.
“I think I am practicing well. I’m going to give my best during this week of practice,” Nadal said. “I hope to be ready for New York.
“I believe that I did things well enough during the whole year to be ready to compete at the highest level of New York, so I’m looking forward to it.”
