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‘My belief in myself is never…’

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Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios suggests he approaches a match point like any other and that’s one of the reasons he was able to keep his cool when down five match points to Frances Tiafoe. In the Washington quarterfinals, Kyrgios saved a total of match points to beat Tiafoe 6-7 (5) 7-6 (12) 6-1.

After the match, Kyrgios was asked how he was able to save a total of five match points against Tiafoe. “Yeah, look, I don’t even think of it as match point or not. At the end of the day, if I lose, I lose. I’m going to shake that person’s hand and say, ‘Too good.’

I put myself in a position to stay in the game, and I felt, from my experience, that he was lifting the crowd up and engaging them from the start. I expended a little energy at the beginning,” Kyrgios said, according to Sportskeeda.

In the first set tie-break, Kyrgios led 5-2, before Tiafoe won the next five points to steal the first set from the Australian. After winning the first set in a tie-break, Tiafoe commanded five match points in the second-set tie-break to close out the match with a narrow straight-set victory.

But Kyrgios had other plans, as the Aussie saved all of those match points, before converting on his fourth set point to send the match to a decider. Tiafoe never recovered from the second set loss as Kyrgios broke the American twice in the third set to complete a huge comeback.

Those two breaks were the only ones seen during the match.

Kyrgios expressed satisfaction

In his press conference following his round of 32 win, World No. 37 Nick Kyrgios said that he’s never short on confidence in big matches.

“You guys are acting like I haven’t beaten world No. 1s before or something. Like, I’ve done it before. I’ve beaten Medvedev before. I’ve beaten Roger, Novak, Rafa. Like I feel like my confidence, and my belief in myself is never short.

I could lose five matches in a row, and I still believe I have a chance to beat anyone,” Kyrgios said. The Australian said that serving and volleying was key to disrupting the momentum of the top seed, adding that he also returned well.

“It was a tough match. I didn’t go out there thinking that he was World No. 1,” said Kyrgios. ‘We played each other three times. He’s beaten me once, I’ve beaten him twice. I knew he was feeling confident so I had to come out there with a game style that wasn’t going to give him too much rhythm. I served and volleyed pretty much every point.”

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