While the Australian Open got off to an interesting start, it’s only really starting to get going as it enters its second week. Yesterday, it exploded into life in dramatic fashion as Rafael Nadal and Nick Kyrgios clashed in a memorable match that eventually saw the world number one progress.
It was anything other than easy for the Spanish tennis legend.
With the total aces served during the Australian Open reaching 9,812 on the day, and creating a massive $5,657,871 fund to go towards the victims of the Australian bushfires, the official Australian Open site enjoyed its biggest day of the fortnight as everyone wanted to follow the action across all the courts, with major stars in action.
The biggest draw in Melbourne, however, was easily Nadal and Kyrgios. To say that the two men have history is a little like saying it can get a bit chilly at the South Pole in winter. The two men clearly wouldn’t invite the other to a party if everyone else on the planet was busy washing their hair. Nadal, the compulsive tidier of his hairline, his water bottles and his precision forehands taking on Kyrgios, the whirling dervish of devilry, all loud shorts and attitude, each shot seemingly made in anger at the tennis ball, is the perfect tennis match-up. Should the pair of them ever need the money after retirement, the exhibition matches would be worth any ticket price in any country.
The first set was something of a sporting certainty. Kyrgios, who came out for the warm-up wearing a Kobe Bryant L.A. Lakers jersey, removed the yellow-and-purple homage to take to the court in an outfit that looked to have attempted to use each colour of the spectrum at least once. Nadal, resplendent in pink and white, bobbed and bounced through the first set like an eager marshmallow.
Kyrgios was blown away by the power of his adversary, the immediate ability the Spaniard has to switch straight into his A-Game upon the simple beckoning word from the umpire of ‘time’. Nadal swept the Australian aside like an annoyance, an insect to be attacked rather than feared, and Kyrgios, despite joking that the linesman was blind, then mickey-taking his opponent by tugging at his hairline in the same twitchy manner Nadal adopts, had no genuine answers to the questions that were posed to him. Nadal took the opener 6-3, and the match looked a forgone conclusion.
The second set, however, proved that no matter where he is at in his personal or professional life, Nick Kyrgios has a sting in his tail like few other players. On his day, or in his set, he can be unplayable, and so it was in the second set, as the home crowd leaped to their feet on countless occasions, rallying to win it 6-3 and level the match.
Suddenly, with the crowd unable to stay seated between points, it was game on.
The third set went all the way, nudged into a tense tie-break by each man’s refusal to be outdone by his opponent. Kyrgios seemed to be able to reach balls that no-one could stretch to. Nadal, seizing every chance to apply pressure, returned with the speed and power of a man playing to save the life of a captured hostage in an action film.
At one point, Kyrgios slammed successive strokes plumb onto the line in Nadal’s court. Twice, Nadal replied, then a second later, backhanded it away for the most stunning of winner. Kyrgios, unable to return the ball after seeing two shots that should have been winners somehow returned by the nerveless Nadal, then witnessed the Spanish world number one slam a forehand down his own line, the ball past in a white blur before he could even raise his racquet. Kyrgios, appreciating the shot, simply applauded his nemesis, and the third set went away from him by the finest of margins.
The fourth set could have gone either way, decided as it was by another tie-break in favour of the magnificent Majorcan. The margins of success and failure in any Grand Slam game at this level are fine, but there seemed a cigarette paper between the men all evening, and while Nadal broke Kyrgios in the fourth set, Kygios saved the set when he broke Nadal back in the 12th game to take it that tie-break in heroic fashion.
The match deserved a fifth set, Kyrgios had done almost enough to demand a decider, but almost is the cruelest word in sport and Nadal had no need for it again. The world number one goes on, but the test Kyrgios gave him will stand him in great stead for those greater tests to come. Kyrgios and Nadal again were irresistible to watch.
