Rafael Nadal was upset by a physically struggling Nick Krygios in their second round match at the Acapulco Open in Mexico on Wednesday night.
The world number two and the Australian Open runner-up looked like he was strolling to an easy win after he won the first set against an ailing Kyrgios. With Kyrgios looking he could throw in the towel at any point, the Nadal win looked almost a given before the Aussie made a comeback to win it 3-6, 7-6, 7-6 to complete one of the shocks of the season.
Kyrgios looked to be feeling quite unwell at the end of the first set, and was even caught on camera admitting so. However, his decision to soldier on was based on what he admitted was a fear of being booed off the court.
A medical time-out later, Kyrgios was back on court in an attempt to get going and came back strongly for a while. But he fell during one of the points yet again and looked like he was set for another retirement before continuing yet again.
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— doublefault28 (@doublefault28) February 28, 2019
(Krygios served an underarm serve in the third set too)
He won the second set in a tie-breaker before calling out for the trainer yet again to get some more treatment before the start of the third.
In the final set, Nadal had a couple of match-points in the tie-breaker but Krygios fought back to break back. Nadal double-faulted at a crucial juncture in the tie-breaker to give the Aussie a match-point of his own that he converted to win the classic in three sets.
Earlier, Kyrgios had overcome Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-3, 7-5, and Nadal had beaten Mischa Zverev, 6-3, 6-3 in their respective first round matches to set up this sixth encounter between the two. Krygios had beaten Nadal twice of their previous five matches.
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