The high of Nick Kyrgios’ quarter-final win over Novak Djokovic in the Mexican Open quarter-final on Friday was brought crashing down on Friday, when an unseeded Sam Querrey defeated him in their semi-final. From being in absolute control of the match in the first set to his sudden drop in form over the course of the latter two sets, the sixth-seeded Kyrgios provided a contrasting imagery of the player who came out to play against Djokovic on Thursday.
However, even as the 21-year-old’s loss renewed the debate – just as it had seemed to have ended – about whether he would continue to have such inexplicable loss of form, match after match, the explanation for his performance woes came coincidentally from Kyrgios himself.
“I never have a problem getting up for these matches [against higher ranked players]. It’s more the smaller matches and smaller tournaments,” said Kyrgios, in his post-match interview after his win over the World No 2. “[But] it’s going to get better every day, [I am] finding motivation.”
In fairness, despite his loss to Querrey, Kyrgios does have a lot going in for him ahead of the start of the year’s first Masters 1000 in Indian Wells next week. For one, he reached his second straight semi-final in Acapulco after Marseille last week, chalking up an interesting start to the year. And lastly, his win over Djokovic propped him to a favourable record of 11 wins against top-10 players, which could only improve given his penchant of scoring the toughest of wins seemingly in the easiest way possible.
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