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 Ten months after the then 144th-ranked Kyrgios overwhelmed Rafa
Nadal in the Wimbledon fourth round with a fearless brand of tennis,
the Australian showed that he is a force to be reckoned with on clay
too.
Now ranked 35th on the back of contesting his first ever ATP final
in Estoril last weekend, Kyrgios brought an abrupt end to Federer's
hopes of winning a fourth Madrid trophy with a heart-pumping 6-7(2)
7-6(5) 7-6(12) victory.
"I think he's the greatest of all time... I knew before the match
that I would have to play one of the greatest matches I have ever
played, I wasn't intimidated at all," the remarkably composed
20-year-old said courtside following his victory in two hours 37
minutes.
"It doesn't really feel real at the moment. It's a strange
feeling... it's pretty exciting."
While Kyrgios was celebrating what he called "definitely the
greatest win of my career", Federer was condemned to his earliest
exit in 11 visits to Madrid.
On the day he had hoped to celebrate the first birthday of his twin
boys Lenny and Leo with a routine victory, the world number two was
first rankled when Kyrgios broke him in the opening game of the
match.
The irritation went up a few notches as he was heard snapping "We
need a clown for this circus" when the second set slipped away from
his grasp under a barrage of aces and crunching baseline winners.
Facing an opponent who was just eight when he won the first of his
record 17 grand slam titles in 2003, Federer wasted two match points
in the tension-filled third set tiebreak.
Instead Kyrgios was the one holding his arms aloft in victory after
he wrapped up the contest on his sixth match point when Federer
slammed a forehand wide.
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Following a disappointing season in which he has claimed only one
low-key title, Nadal went back to using his old racket model to
record a 6-4 6-3 win over American Steve Johnson.
He was joined in the third round by Tomas Berdych and 10th seed
Grigor Dimitrov but U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic followed Federer
out of the exit door after a 6-7(5) 7-6(5) 6-3 defeat by Fernando
Verdasco.
Kei Nishikori also progressed with a 6-2 4-6 6-4
victory over Belgian David Goffin, while second seed Andy Murray
rounded out the day's action with a 6-4 3-6 6-0 victory over Philipp
Kohlschreiber.
(Writing by Pritha Sarkar, editing by Ed Osmond/Nick Mulvenney)
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