Australian Nick Kyrgios, 40th in the world, qualified on Wednesday at Wimbledon for his first Grand Slam semi-final by dismissing Chilean Cristian Garin (43rd) 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) .
“I never imagined being in the semi-finals of a Grand Slam tournament, I thought I had let the train pass, that I had missed the opening…” said the 27-year-old Australian who had previously played two Major quarter-finals, including one at Wimbledon in 2014 for his first appearance.
“I felt like I was playing on my heels because Garin is a damn good player. I was lucky on a few break points, but I’m taking it and I’ll prepare for the next game,” said he added, a few minutes following falling with his arms crossed on the grass of Court N.1 following the match point.
This next match will be once morest the double winner Rafael Nadal (4th) or the American Taylor Fritz (14th).
To help him prepare for this historic half, as usual he has no coach.
“I don’t have a coach because I wouldn’t want to put that weight on anyone’s shoulders. No one knows my tennis as well as I do,” he explained.
Kyrgios thus becomes the first Australian to enter the last four at Wimbledon since Lleyton Hewitt in 2005.
He is also the worst-ranked player to play the semis since the 2008 edition when Marat Safin, 75th in the world, and Rainer Schuettler, 94th, both made it there.
On Wednesday, Garin claimed the first nine points of the opening set to lead 2-0 and 15/0 on Kyrgios’ serve.
But the Australian then entered the match and took over the opposing service to come back to 3-3, before scoring another break in the final game of the set to win it.
In the second set, Kyrgios broke to lead 3-1 and then controlled his advantage until the end.
The third set was much more hung, each player holding his face-off until the tie-break won by Kyrgios.
