This was published 5 years ago
It took five sets of box office tennis, but Nick Kyrgios is into the third round of the Australian Open.
Kyrgios beat crafty Frenchman Ugo Humbert 5-7, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4 to set up a tantalising third round clash with third seed Austrian Dominic Thiem.
Nick Kyrgios completed an incredible comeback, surviving two match points in the fourth set to win in a five-set thriller.
Watch the match point here.
Well, that’s all for tonight.
What an epic from Nick Kyrgios; one we won’t forget quickly.
Ajla Tomljanovic nearly made it two incredible wins, but Simona Halep showed her class to come-from-behind over the Aussie.
Thanks for following, feel free to watch some of the videos we’ve posted earlier tonight and do read the inteview Kyrgios gave to Jim Courier.
Until tomorrow, good night!
It’s a pretty comprehensive 7-6, 6-1, 6-2 win for Grigor Dimitrov against Aussie Alex Bolt tonight.
Ranked 24th in the world, Dimitrov reached the semi-finals at Melbourne Park in 2017 and has twiced reached the quarter-finals. It’s probably been the Bulgarian’s favourite major.
Bolt is knocked out in the second round for the second year in a row. The 28-year-old wildcard reached the third round in 2019, but found Dimitrov a class above tonight.
Dimitrov, seeded 18th, will next meet 15th seed Pablo Carreno Busta, who has progressed beyond the second round at Melbourne Park for the fifth straight year.
Alex Bolt has pulled out some nice shots to hold at 5-2.
But 18th seed Grigor Dimitrov will now serve for the match.
The biggest issue tonight for Bolt has been his unforced errors - 44 to Dimitrov’s 17.
He’s tried coming to the net, but only been able to win 10 of 23 net points. Dimitrov has dominated off his first serves, winning 81 per cent of those points.
It’s now 4-1 in the third set, but it’s looking a little too late for Aussie Alex Bolt.
The 18th seed, Grigor Dimitrov, is just two games away from the third round.
Aussie Alex Bolt had two break points in that service game, but Dimitrov found a way to hold and now leads 4-0.
He’s just two games away from moving into the third round of the tournament.
It took five sets of box office tennis, but Nick Kyrgios is into the third round of the Australian Open.
Kyrgios beat crafty Frenchman Ugo Humbert 5-7, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4 to set up a tantalising third round clash with third seed Austrian Dominic Thiem.
Aussie Alex Bolt is struggling to hold any sort of ground against Grigor Dimitrov.
The 18th seed leads 7-6, 6-1, 3-0 and is quickly closing in on victory.
This game has not yet gone an hour and a half, despite the first set going to a tiebreak.
Dimitrov has nine aces to five and 23 winners to 12, while Bolt has hit 35 unforced errors to just 16.
In my opinion, this was the moment that changed the game. Staring down the barrel of match point, Kyrgios found another gear and ran with it, avoiding two match points in the fourth set before a clinical tiebreak performance.
Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic came within an ace of pulling off the biggest upset of the Australian Open so far when she went down to world No.2 Simona Halep in three sets after holding a 5-2 lead in the final set.
It was an epic encounter crammed with top-quality tennis in which for two and a half hours the world’s No.72, Croatian-born Tomljanovic, went toe to toe and point for point with grand slam champion Halep.
Kyrgios hit an incredible shot behind his back tonight. Watch below.