Box office clash lives up to hype as Rafael Nadal comes out on top against Nick Kyrgios

Wimbledon
Rafael Nadal

Drama, gamesmanship, arguments with the umpire and plenty of good tennis, the Rafael Nadal-Nick Kyrgios second-round Wimbledon clash certainly delivered.

It took Nadal three hours and four minutes to get the job done, winning 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-3) to set up a third-round match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, but perhaps the sideshow was better than the tennis itself.

Make no mistake, Nadal and Kyrgios delivered excellent tennis as the Australian was able to go stroke for stroke with the Spaniard for most of the match and in between there was also “Kyrgios tennis”.

There was a 143mph (230kph) second serve-ace in the first set followed by an underarm serve from the Aussie.

Then there was the drama that saw him have a full go at chair umpire Damien Dumusois over Nadal’s comfort break and his slow play during points while at one point he smashed a ball straight at Nadal.

As for the match itself, Nadal drew first blood with a break in game two and he didn’t relinquish the advantage, but Kyrgios had the early upper hand in the second set as he raced into a 3-0 lead.

Nadal got the break back in game seven only for Kyrgios to break back again and then serve it out.

The next set went to the tie-breaker and Nadal, having lost all the previous tie-breakers against the Australian, managed to change that record.

The fourth set was a repeat with no breaks of serve and Kyrgios turned out to be quite erratic in the tie-breaker as the Spaniard wrapped up his 50th match win at Wimbledon.

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