Nadal faces the big challenge of Kyrgios, the audience eagerly awaits the great battle

(Sports news, tennis news) For the 9th time clashing with tennis “bad boy” Nick Kyrgios, Rafael Nadal showed respect for his opponent.

Nadal beat Opelka, into quarterfinals of Indian Wells

Rafael Nadal having the best season start of his career, playing in 3 championships all 3, now on his way to a 4th championship at Indian Wells 2022 with “Gaur” is also being “carpeted”.

Nadal (left) respects Kyrgios (right) ahead of Indian Wells quarterfinals 2022

Novak Djokovic was not present at the Masters 1,000 event in the US, the remaining 3 big players, Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev also “fallen off” early, everything seems to be favorable for Rafa.

But in Indian Wells 2022, there is still an opponent no one wants to meet, that is Nick Kyrgios. The Australian tennis player has just “stayed out” to win a ticket to the quarter-finals of Jannik Sinner (Italy) giving up, it is worth mentioning that “Bad Boy” is Nadal’s opponent in the upcoming match.

In terms of head-to-head record, Rafa is slightly better with 5 wins and 3 losses against Kyrgios. However, “Bad Boy” is a very unpredictable player, if played properly, the Australian star can beat anyone.

After defeating 2m11 tall Reilly Opelka in the fourth round, Nadal commented on Kyrgios: “He (Kyrgios) is playing great, everyone knows how good he is when he’s motivated. It will be a great one. challenge, good test for me, I’m excited to be in the quarterfinals.”

Nadal is starting the 2022 season with 18 consecutive wins, only the second person to do so since the debut of the ATP Tour in 1990. Djokovic holds two records for the best start, with 41 wins of the season. 2011 and 26 wins in the 2020 season.

The last 2 times against Kyrgios, Rafa won, but experts tennis Ben Rothenberg wrote on Twitter: “Nadal has won 5 of 8 games against Kyrgios, but Kyrgios has won both previous meetings on hard courts in North America.”

Another account replied to Rothenberg: “Statistics are just something to look at. Nadal will easily beat Kyrgios, who doesn’t have much motivation to win.”

“Fantastic Nadal vs Kyrgios, it will be a very emotional match and possibly a scandal,” another Twitter user wrote.

“Tennis fans know that when Kyrgios is focused, motivated, he can beat anyone. Let’s wait and see if Kyrgios’ motivation is enough to help him beat Nadal in the upcoming match,” an account commented. .

The men’s singles quarter-final match between Kyrgios and Nadal will take place at 5 am on March 18 (Vietnam time).