Brisbane: Australia’s Nick Kyrgios battled past defending champion Grigor Dimitrov 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 to set up a final against American Ryan Harrison at the Brisbane International tennis tournament here, Saturday. It was the Australian’s maiden win over the Bulgarian, having lost their two previous encounters.
After losing the first set, Kyrgios, the No. 3 seed stamped his authority on the second, converting two breakpoints to force a decider for a third consecutive match this week.
“I knew that I had to do something a little bit differently today (Saturday). I couldn’t give him (Dimitrov) too much rhythm,” Kyrgios, who served 19 aces, said after the match.
In the other semifinal, Harrison came back from a set down to end the dream run of` Australian wildcard Alex De Minaur in a 4-6, 7-6(7-5), 6-4 victory.
Thiem pulls out
Top seed Dominic Thiem’s Australian Open preparations suffered a setback after he withdrew from his Qatar Open tennis tournament semifinal against Gael Monfils due to illness Friday night at Doha, with the Frenchman now set to take on Russian Andrey Rublev in the final.
The 24-year-old Thiem however, is confident he will be swinging his racquet come January 15 at Melbourne Park.
Rublev, who beat Fernando Verdasco and Borna Coric in the previous rounds, came back from the brink of defeat to earn a 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(7-2) win over Argentine Guido Pella.
Federer in groove
Meanwhile Australian Open men’s champion, Roger Federer began his preparations in nice fashion with a fluent victory over Alexander Zverev. Playing for Switzerland in the Hopman Cup final at Perth, Federer came back from a set down to defeat the German player, 6-7(4-7), 6-0, 6-2.
Federer after losing a first set tie-break, was in imperious in the second and third as he completely outplayed the German. He won eight games in a row to win bagel Zverev in the second set and and build up a 2-0 lead in the third. He ended the German’s misery with an audacious drop shot on his first match point.
Press trust of india
