Before a vocal New York crowd unmistakably in his corner, Nick Kyrgios has been defeated by bitter rival Karen Khachanov 7-5, 4-6, 7-5, 6-7 (3-7), 6-4 in the US Open quarter finals.
The Aussie tennis sensation lost the highly anticipated face-off in a nail-biting five-set final at Flushing Meadows.
That semifinal feeling.@karenkhachanov fights past Nick Kyrgios in five intense sets. pic.twitter.com/c0vfZ5XbNf
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 7, 2022
Kyrgios entered today’s match on a high after knocking out defending champ and World. No.1, Daniil Medvedev on Monday however was broken by Khachanov in the first set.
Despite complaining of injury after his first set loss, the 27-year-old went on to win the second, squaring the match at one set all.
By the time the match had ticked over into its third hour, the Russian had fought back, claiming the third set 7-5.
In a fourth set that went to a tie-break, Kyrgios emerged victorious forcing a fifth set decider in which his Russian rival won with two games in hand.
Going five.@NickKyrgios battles back to win the 4th set tiebreak! pic.twitter.com/p2RPvp6pmU
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 7, 2022
The rivalry between the two US Open quarter-finalists runs back to a 2020 Twitter feud in which Kyrgios called Khachanon an “absolute pelican”.
The pair have only faced off on court twice, once in 2019 at the Cincinnati Open in which Khachanov won and in 2020 at the Australian Open, where Kyrgios won on home soil.
After today’s showstopping match, Khachanov will be advancing to Saturday’s semi-final against Norway’s Casper Ruud, who defeated Italy’s Matteo Berrettini earlier in the day.
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