Nick Kyrgios has made light work of his American opponent to move through to the round of 16 of the US Open.
Key points:Nick Kyrgios made light work of JJ Wolf, winning 6-4, 6-2, 6-3Alex de Minaur smashed his racquet after losing his match to a tweener shotKyrgios is the final man standing for Australia, while Ajla Tomljanovic is alive in the women’s drawAs Australian tennis fans watched Ajla Tomljanović score an historic victory over retiring legend Serena Williams, Kyrgios was taking a back seat as he comfortably accounted for JJ Wolf 6-4, 6-2, 6-3.
The win sets up a likely fourth-round showdown with world number one and defending champion Daniil Medvedev.
Ushered on to Louis Armstrong at the same time as Tomljanović arrived at Arthur Ashe Stadium to face Williams, Kyrgios wasted only three sets and less than two hours on court.
The Wimbledon finalist will likely need every ounce of energy for his last-16 match.
Barring an upset loss to Chinese qualifier Wu Yibling, Kyrgios will square off with Medvedev in the first heavyweight battle of the Open.
Kyrgios leads the Russian 3-1 head to head and he upstaged the top seed only three weeks ago in Montreal.
If anyone can deny Medvedev back-to-back titles at Flushing Meadows, especially in Novak Djokovic’s absence, it is the mercurial Kyrgios.
A last-16 clash on Sunday would be worthy of a final, with officials unhappy to lose either of the two big drawcards before the quarter-finals stage.
De Minaur done in by tweener stunnerAlex de Minaur has been sent packing from the US Open with a rough third-round beating from in-form Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta.
Carreno Busta overcame an injury scare to complete a 6-1, 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5) win over the Australian number 1, with an extraordinary tweener on match point.
De Minaur’s best grand slam results have consistently come at Flushing Meadows, with the world number 20 reaching the quarter-finals in 2020, fourth round the year before and the last 32 on two other occasions.
Alex de Minaur returns a shot against Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain during the US Open.(Getty Images: Sarah Stier)But Carreno Busta, the tournament’s 12th seed, a two-time US Open semi-finalist and recent winner of the Montreal Masters, had too much firepower.
The big-hitting Spaniard bludgeoned 36 winners, broke de Minaur five times and dropped serve only once to progress to the fourth round in three hours and 33 minutes.
He blew de Minaur off the court in the first two sets before being slowed by an apparent adductor or back issue.
De Minaur threatened a famous fightback after winning the third set and taking the fourth to a tiebreaker.
Carreno Busta had offered him hope when his level clearly dropped, then he took a medical time-out after conceding the third set to have treatment.
The Spaniard also changed shoes, with his team handing him a new set of orthotics, seemingly for support.
The stoppage and gear change initially appeared to do the trick, with Carreno Busta holding serve to love immediately upon the resumption.
De Minaur’s confidence grew, though, and the match seemed headed towards a deciding fifth set before the Spaniard won a remarkable match point.
After being lobbed, Carreno Busta didn’t look a hope of reaching the ball but somehow managed to play a tweener over de Minaur’s head.
De Minaur could only manage to get a frame to the ball before throwing his racquet down in anguish at losing the match.
The 18th seed’s departure leaves Nick Kyrgios as the last Australian remaining in the men’s singles draw.
AAP
Posted 4h ago4 hours agoSat 3 Sep 2022 at 12: 53am, updated 1h ago1 hours agoSat 3 Sep 2022 at 3: 51am