The Australian Nick Kyrgios, number 63 in the world ranking, and the Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka, number 95, qualified this Saturday for the final of the Washington tournamentafter beating the Swedish Michael Ymer and to russian Andrey Rublevrespectively.
Kyrgios, a recent finalist at Wimbledon, did not fail against Ymer, number 115 in the world, and beat him by 7-6(4) and 6-3 in one hour and 35 minutes of play. The Australian will play his second consecutive final, after which he lost to Serbian Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon, and he will do so after a highly demanding tournament for him.
He had to overcome the quarterfinals and the semifinals this Friday, as his match on Thursday against the American Reilly Opelka was interrupted and abandoned because of the rain. Kyrgios beat him convincingly on Friday and, hours later, saved five match points to beat the American Frances Tiafoe.
This Saturday he shielded his ticket for the final, in which he will face the great revelation of the tournament, the Japanese lefty Nishioka, executioner of the first seed, Rublev (6-3 and 6-4). Nishioka, in his first semi-final since Delray Beach 2020added Rublev to his list of illustrious victims in Washington. Before the Russian, he had beaten the Australian Alex De Miñaur, the Russian Karen Kachanov and the British Daniel Evans. Against Rublev, he achieved his first victory of the year against a player who is part of the top ten in the world.
