Nick Kyrgios pulls off incredible upset win over Rafael Nadal

Nick Kyrgios has stuck to his guns and put together a monumental come-from-behind victory over world No.2 Rafael Nadal at the Mexican Open in Acapulco.

The second-round win came after the Australian lost the first set and made a sad admission to the trainer, saying he was feeling ill but couldn’t retire because of the criticism he would receive.

“If I forfeit, the media will blow it up… I’ll be booed off the court,” he said.

That inadvertently turned into a pep talk for himself as Kyrgios hung tough and won 3-6 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (8-6) in just over three hours.

He saved three match points in a controversial third-set tiebreak, which also saw Nadal serve a double fault to hand the Australian his own match point opportunity.

It is Kyrgios’s third victory over Nadal and his first triumph against a top-five opponent since defeating Grigor Dimitrov in January 2018.

In addition to telling the trainer he was feeling sick, the world No.72 played with both knees taped, jarring one in the second set, and required a medical timeout for a back problem.

In spite of all that Kyrgios came out on top behind 21 aces and a variety of heavy winners and accurate volleys.

He even tried an underarm serve, a tactic perhaps underutilised against Nadal given the Spaniard’s deep return stance, though it went long.

Kyrgios will face Swiss veteran Stan Wawrinka in the quarter-finals.

Kyrgios has joined countrymen John Millman and Alex de Minaur in the quarters.

Millman will come up against American giant John Isner, while de Minaur will play the winner of Thursday’s match between David Ferrer and second seed Alexander Zverev.

More to come…