After Roger Federer and John Millman played out a marathon five-set thriller in the Australian Open on Friday, the crowd at Melbourne Park witnessed another cracker of a game on Saturday with Nick Kyrgios edging past Karen Khachanov in another five-setter.
Kyrgios, who set up a fourth-round meeting with Rafael Nadal, was pushed to the limits by Khachanov in an encounter lasting four hours and 26 minutes – the longest match of the Australian’s career.
The victory didn’t come easy for Kyrgios in a match that wasn’t short of any drama and controversy. He was leading by two sets and was on match point in both the third and fourth sets.
During the fourth set, Kyrgios ranted against the match umpire after a violation for wasting time. The Australian had stopped play for a brief moment asking a ball girl not to touch his towel he used to wipe his bleeding hand.
However, Khachanov showed grit and fought back to force the match into a fifth set decider. The Russian lead 6-5 in the tie-breaker before nerves got the better of him as Kyrgios triumphed in a nail-biting encounter.
Kyrgios’ temper is very well known but this time, he didn’t let it affect him and played out one of the best matches of his career.
Here’s how Twitter reacted to his victory:
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