Story highlights
Nick Kyrgios has beaten Russian Andrey Kuznetsov in the fourth round of the Miami Open
The Australian will now face Canadian Milos Raonic in the quarter-finals
Nick Kyrgios has guaranteed himself a career-high world ranking thanks to a straight set win over Russian Andrey Kuznetsov at the Miami Open.
Both players were making their fourth round Miami debuts but it was Kyrgios who triumphed on the back of 11 aces.
After a tight first set that took the pair to tiebreak, the Australian went on to dominate the second set, winning the match 7-6 (7-3) 6-3.
In a win that might help pave the way to forgiveness over his on-court antics, the 20-year-old becomes the first Australian since Lleyton Hewitt to reach the quarter-finals in Miami 14 years ago and the youngest since Juan Martin del Potro in 2009.
Not that the potential prestige stopped his usual theatrics creeping into the game.
After receiving a warning for hitting a ball out of court Kyrgios could be heard arguing with the umpire that “if anyone else, like if Rafa [Nadal] that, nah, nah, you’d keep it cool. This game is biased as anything.”
Kyrgios will now go up against big-server Milos Raonic in the first Masters quarter-final of his career.
Canadian Raonic just holds the edge over the Aussie, with 2014 victories at both Wimbledon and Roland Garros before Kyrgios turned the tables and booted seventh seed Raonic out of Wimbledon in a hefty third round clash last year.
Having convincingly crushed Bosnian Damir Dzuhur 6-0 6-3 in his own 54-minute fourth round, the Canadian will be looking to wreak his revenge and continue an impressive season that saw him reach the final at Indian Wells earlier this month.
Ailing Nadal feels the heat in Miami
‘Bad boy’
A victory for Kyrgios could see him move inside the world’s top 20, reclaim the Australian top spot from rival Bernard Tomic and offer him the opportunity to silence some of his critics.
The world number 26 first burst to prominence at Wimbledon in 2014 when he stunned Rafael Nadal on his way to the quarterfinals, leaving many to believe he would soon be challenging for grand slam titles.
But his career has since been beset by a series of controversial incidents.
He was fined $10,000 after personal comments were directed at opponent Stan Wawrinka at the Rogers Cup in Canada.
Wimbledon 2015 turned into a circus: he was caught uttering “dirty scum” following an exchange with the umpire in the first round, found to be contravening Wimbledon’s strict dress code and in the third round saw his racket land in the stands.
Eventually he exited the competition under the shadow of accusations that he hadn’t even tried during his fourth round loss against Richard Gasquet.
The spats continued off-court when he took Tennis Australia to task and was openly criticized online by another infamous Australian talent, Shane Warne.
