Facing unbeaten American Brandon Nakashima, Kyrgios found himself hitting harder than he had previously in the tournament, in which he has already recorded arguably the biggest win of his career over No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas. Kyrgios dropped the first set, won the next two, then fell behind in a break in the fourth. At 5-3 and serving with a chance to extend the set, Kyrgios did something strange. The usually fearsome server dropped his serve to half his usual speed, missed shots wildly and dropped a sneak serve, according to Sporting News. Nakashima jumped out to a 40-0 lead and then took the set on that third set point. Some assumed Kyrgios had the game over, especially after he broke Nakashima twice in the fifth set to win 4-6, 6-4, 7-6, 3-6, 6-2. As it turns out, they were right. Speaking to reporters after the match, Kyrgios confirmed that he purposely conceded the end of the fourth set to deny Nakashima, who defeated No. 13 Denis Shapovalov to reach the fourth round. Kyrgios: “I knew from the start that I wasn’t playing as well as I would have liked. I didn’t feel the ball like I did against Tsitsipas or Krazinovic, so I knew I just had to keep my head down and fight today. It was a good mental performance. “At the end of the fourth, complete rope-a-dope tactic. I just threw that serve, because I knew he was in rhythm. He was starting to get the better of me and I just wanted to throw him it worked a little bit.” Kyrgios also noted that a shoulder problem threw him out early in the match and, this being Nick Kyrgios, clashed with a reporter who aggressively confronted him about a perceived violation of Wimbledon’s dress code. With Monday’s win, Kyrgios advanced to his second career Wimbledon quarter-final and his first since his breakout performance in 2014. He will face world No. 43 Cristian Garin of Chile for a chance to reach the top Grand Slam semifinal of his career. Nick Kyrgios was inspired by Muhammad Ali to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals. (Photo by Rob Newell – CameraSport via Getty Images)
