Disbelieving mom fires up angry Kyrgios

Blazing Australian teenager ousts Nadal in four sets

When Norlaila Kyrgios checks her mobile phone for messages on Wednesday morning in Canberra there will be a "smiley-face text" waiting for her.

That text from 19-year-old son Nick in London is not a simple greeting that means 'hi mom' or 'miss you mom.' What it really means is, "Huh, so much for you thinking I wasn't good enough to beat Rafa Nadal?".

The offspring she had so little faith in sent Wimbledon spinning on its axis on Tuesday when he sensationally toppled Nadal 7-6 (5), 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals on his debut appearance at the All England Club.

If Nadal wanted to blame anyone for the way Kyrgios came out all guns blazing, firing down 37 scorching aces and 70 sizzling winners, he needs to look no further than the Australian wild-card's mother.

"I saw in an interview that my mom thought Rafa was too good for me so that made me a little angry," world No 144 Kyrgios said.

That anger fired up Kyrgios so much that from the moment he swaggered onto Centre Court bopping his head to the music blaring out of his pink headphones, he looked like a man possessed.

So what if Kyrgios was playing a rival who:

- Was ranked No 1 in the world;

- was chasing a 15th Grand Slam title;

- was on a 14-match winning streak against Australians;

- had not lost to a player ranked as low as him since 2006;

- owned a record nine French Open titles.

Kyrgios did not care a jot about what one of the all-time greats of the sport had achieved.

All the Australian tyro cared about was that he possessed the belief and the talent to prolong "the best week of my life" by turfing Nadal out of the grass-court major.

Sandwiched between his opening ace of the contest and the final ace on match point were two hours, 58 minutes of heart-pumping action.

When it was all over at 7:09 pm local time, it was the first time Kyrgios ran out of ideas.

"I didn't know what to do ... there were just so many emotions. I didn't know whether to drop to the ground, throw my racket," he said.

Looking stunned, he simply turned to his teary-eyed family in the players' box before producing some dance moves he dubbed "the juicy wiggle".

Pulling off "the biggest win of my career" might be enough for some but the offspring of a Malaysian mother and Greek father has his eye on bigger prizes.

"I want to be the No 1 player in the world," said Kyrgios, whose hashtag of choice on his Twitter account is #NKrising.

Since December 2013:

- His ranking has rocketed from 828 to the top 70;

- he has became the first player ranked outside the top 100 to beat a world No 1 since 1992;

- he made the Wimbledon quarterfinals on his debut appearance, blasting a tournament-leading 113 aces;

- he is guaranteed to pick up at least 226,000 pounds ($384,600) for reaching the Wimbledon quarterfinals.

Kyrgios' fearless display on Tuesday left many gushing.

"We've been waiting for this for a while. We keep saying 'who is the next guy?', and I think we've found that guy right now," said former three-time champion John McEnroe.

"He's acting to me like he could win this tournament."

STAR REMINISCENT OF SAMPRAS

Former Wimbledon semi-finalist Todd Woodbridge described fellow Australian Nick Kyrgios's stunning victory over world No1 Rafael Nadal on Tuesday as one of the best efforts he has seen from a teenager.

"It's one of the best performances I've seen in my 30 years in tennis from a teenager," Woodbridge, who made the singles semifinals in 1997 and formed one of the world's greatest doubles partnerships with Mark Woodforde, said minutes after watching the Centre Court thriller.

Kyrgios, a former junior world No 1, has an eye-catching, attacking style that is already drawing comparisons with some of the world's greats.

Three-time Wimbledon winner John McEnroe has likened the athletic Australian upstart to Boris Becker, while Woodbridge believes there are similarities with a young Pete Sampras.

"For me it's a bit like Pete Sampras when he first made his mark," he said. "We all knew he was good then but he went bang at the US Open and won the tournament (as a 19-year-old).

"I think we are a long way from winning the tournament but it's a long time since we've seen someone do what he's doing. I think back to when a young Rafa burst onto the scene as a teenager, that's what it's like."

When Kyrgios served for the match at 5-3 in the fourth set, many would have expected some nerves.

Instead he belted some hefty baseline winners and crunched down his 37th ace to send the two-time champion packing.

"He has always been a great closer ... he's always had the ability to play a big shot and come up with the goods when it counted and he's never been scared of a situation," Woodbridge, who won nine Wimbledon men's doubles titles, said.

(China Daily 07/03/2014 page23)