After his victory at the Miami Open thanks to a straight-set win over Russian Andrey Kuznetsov, Nick Kyrgios called tennis a "biased" sport.
Kyrgios has guaranteed himself a "bad boy" image together with his career-high world ranking. Kuznetsov and Kyrgios were making their fourth round Miami debuts when Kyrgios won over Kuznetsov on the back of 11 aces, per CNN News.
Nick Kyrgios dominated the second set, winning the match 7-6 (7-3) 6-3, after a tight first set at tiebreak with Kuznetsov. After Lleyton Hewitt reached the quarterfinals in Miami 14 years ago, the 20-year-old Kyrgios is the first Australian to achieve such a performance. Kyrgios is also the youngest player to achieve such feat following Juan Martin del Potro in 2009.
A victory for Kyrgios could help him reclaim the Australian top spot from rival Bernard Tomic, move inside the world's top 20 and silence some of his critics. For now, Kyrgios is world's number 26. Nick Kyrgios is well-known for his on-court antics, but the Miami Open victory might help pave the way to forgiveness. However, the potential prestige did not stop Kyrgios' usual theatrics during the game.
Kyrgios argued with the umpire after receiving a warning for hitting a ball out of court. He said that "anyone else, like Rafa did that, you would keep it cool," according to The Guardian. Kyrgios added that "this game is biased as anything."
In the first Masters quarterfinal of his career, Kyrgios will now go up against big-server Milos Raonic. With victories in 2014 at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon, Canadian Raonic holds the edge over the Aussie. However, last year, Kyrgios turned the tables. In the third round clash, he was able to eliminate seventh seed Raonic out of Wimbledon.
Kyrgios first reached his fame in 2014 at Wimbledon. He won over Rafael Nadal on his way to the quarterfinals. His performance at the time has left many critics to believe that he would soon be challenging for grand slam titles. However, his tennis career has since been affected by controversial incidents.
At the Rogers Cup in Canada, after personal comments about opponent Stan Wawrinka, Kyrgios was fined $10,000. He was caught saying "dirty scum" at Wimbledon 2015, following an exchange with the umpire in the first round.
