Back in June, Stan Wawrinka blasted through the Ausrtalian tennis prodigy Nick Kyrgios at the Queen's Club in just 49 minutes. The Swiss used his raw power to help his serve get some easy points and the forehand produced great returns. This time around, the script would be completely flipped.
Australia's Nick Kyrgios advanced to the third round of the Rogers Cup after Stan Warinka retired in the third set; Kyrgios won the match 6-7, 6-3, 4-0 (retired).
Back and forth opening set
The first set was very competitive. Warinka eventually won it after the tie breaker, but not before some specatcular tennis being played by both sides. With the first level at one all, Kyrgios broke Stan's serve to go up 1-2. The defending French Open champion would get his serve right back in the next game, breaking the 20-year-old's serve quite easily. After exchanging consecutive breaks, the pair would hold their service game until the tie break.
Wawrinka was down 30-40 in the seventh game on his serve. As he slid deep down the left side of the court, Stan hit a specatular back hand that went up the line to bring the game to duece; the game eventually went to the Swiss superstar.
As the set wore on, the intensity increased and eventually it had to be settled by a tie-breaker. There was very little to separate the two, but there would be very few rallies with points being won quickly.
That first set was won in two different categories. The first: Stan Wawrinka's net play as he won 90% of his points in this area compared to Kyrgios' 50%. Second: Wawrinka also won an astounding 92% of his first serve points.
Stan's game goes downhill
In the second set, the play was almost identical to the first one. Kyrgios finally broke Wawrinka this set in the fifth game. The Australian would be able to hold off for the rest of the set, despite one more service game victory from his opponent.
There was a dramatic increase in Kyrgios' service game in the second set as he won 100% percent of his first service points. It is very rare, in this sport, to see any statstical category reach this high. On the other side of the court, Stan's service game suffered mightly, decreasing this area of his his game by 12%.
Sometime between the middle of the second set and the beginning parts of the third, there would be some words exchanged -- with the Australian spouting some choice words; but it is unclear exactly how much of it Mr. Wawrinka actually heard.
After going up 0-30 in the opening game of the third and final set, the Swiss-born had some unforced errors that caused him to drop his service game. He was not able to recover. Kyrgios broke him again after holding his serve and would eventually be forced to reitre with just a couple of games left to go in the match.
Despite his off-court antics, the youngster completely took Wawrinka out of his comfort zone and produced a superb comeback to advance to the next round of the Rogers Cup.