Nick Kyrgios is a ‘big threat’ to Daniil Medvedev and Rafael Nadal

US Open

James Richardson
August 29, 2022

Daniil Medvedev and Rafael Nadal are the two names that stand out as favourites in the US Open men’s singles field.

With Novak Djokovic absent, Nadal and Medvedev could be set to rerun their epic hard court battle from the Australian Open in New York in September.

However, Alex Corretja warns that Nick Kyrgios could be a serious threat to that dream match getting a second Grand Slam final instalment.

Corretja expects Kyrgios to be at his fiery best at Flushing Meadows despite nursing a knee injury.

When asked how Nick Kyrgios would be at the US Open during a discussion with Eurosport, Corretja replied: “Explosive! We’re going to see probably the best Kyrgios that we have ever seen because he’s got experience from Wimbledon.

“He’s got experience from the summertime, where he’s been playing very, very well. Of course, I think he ran a little bit out of gas at the last tournament, but he had time to recover and he’s going to be at the US Open super well.

“So I think Nick is going to be very dangerous to play against him. I said already that before, at Wimbledon, and I’m lucky enough that he reached the final, not lucky but lucky that I said that.”

Corretja believes that we will see a new Nick Kyrgios as the Grand Slams going forward after his run to the final at Wimbledon.

Despite his antics often rubbing crowds up the wrong way, Corretja believes that Kyrgios will have a lot of support in the US Open.

“For the US Open, you need to think about Kyrgios, of course,” said Corretja.

“He knows already that he can play long matches. He knows how to deal with situations.

“He knows that maybe he doesn’t need to play for the full four hours of his best tennis, maybe he can go up and down a little bit and that’s enough to win matches.

“The crowd in New York will love him. I mean, for sure, because he’s the perfect type of player to play in New York. And New York is show business. New York is all about everything.

“It’s huge and Nick is suited perfectly to that ambience and to that crowd. So I think he could be easily one of the crowd favourites.”

Kyrgios backed up his Wimbledon exploits by winning his first tournament since 2019 as he bagged the Citi Open title for a second time.

The Australian also looked good during his run in Montreal but started to struggle with a niggly knee injury in Quebec and bowed out early in Cincinnati.

Hard courts are the worst surface to be nursing a knee injury on but if Kyrgios can get his serve and return game on song he might be able to get away with limited movement.

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Medvedev and Nadal have had their own injury worries and it will be the Russian that first meets Kyrgios if both players reach the Round of 16.

Kyrgios missed out on a Wimbledon semi-final against Nadal when the Spaniard withdrew injured but we might get that match after all and this time in the championship match at Flushing Meadows.

Nick Kyrgios