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Nick Kyrgios paid tribute to his hospitalised mother after continuing his stunning run of form by defeating world No.1 Daniil Medvedev at the ATP Montreal Masters.
Kyrgios broke twice in the final set as he rallied to topple Russian Medvedev 6-7 (2-7), 6-4 6-2 in the second round — his second career upset of a reigning number one after ambushing Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon in 2014.
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After the victory Kyrgios wrote on the camera ““Be strong Ma” in a message to his mother Norlaila, who is sick in hospital. Prior to the win over Medevedv Kyrgios spoke about his parents’ health and the challenges of being away from family.
“It’s hard because even travelling now, my mum is in hospital at the moment, my dad hasn’t been very well, my brother just had a baby and I don’t get to be there with my family when normal people would like to be with them,” Kyrgios said.
“It’s hard being from Australia because we can’t travel back and forth. There’s a lot of things people don’t see. They only see me winning, losing, throwing a racquet, doing those things. They don’t really understand the challenges that I face or what people on tour face, what’s going on in their personal lives.”
Kyrgios produced some of his usual on-court antics against Medvedev, complaining about a high bounce, hitting a ball into the stands to draw a warning and bickering with his player box in moments of tension.
But after gathering his formidable resources, the 27-year-old ranked 37th finished off the match in exactly two hours.
“This is our fourth meeting and we know each other well,” Kyrgios said. “I don’t go in looking at the rankings, just the guy in front of me.
“I had a clean objective today — play a lot of serve and volley and execute better.
“Hopefully I can keep this rolling and keep on winning. Medvedev is a machine — he’s number one for a reason.”
Kyrgios set up an all-Aussie clash with Alex de Minaur in the next round after his compatriot beat Grigor Dimitrov 7-6 (7-4) 7-5.
Both players were coming off weekend title wins, Kyrgios at the Washington 500 on Sunday and Medvedev at Los Cabos, Mexico, on Saturday.
Kyrgios has won 14 of his last 15 matches to improve to 29-7 for 2022. Medvedev lost for the 11th time in 2022, but by reaching the final at Los Cabos — where he lifted his first trophy of the season — he is assured of taking the number one ranking into his US Open title defence later this month.
He was barred from Wimbledon as the tournament excluded Russian and Belarussian players over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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