Nick Kyrgios enjoys his moment against Daniil Medvedev at the National Bank Open

.

Nick Kyrgios said he was going to have fun playing Daniil Medvedev, and that’s exactly what he did when he defeated the Russian leader 6-7(1), 6-4, 6-2 in the second round of the National Bank Open. tennis championships Wednesday.

.

Kryrgios delighted the IGA Stadium crowd with his brilliant shots and even caught Medvedev off guard by serving underhand. The Aussie appeared to be on the ropes as he made a series of unforced errors to lose the tiebreak, but he broke Medvedev’s serve to start the second set and gained momentum as the match wore on.

“This is the fourth meeting we’ve had, and I’ve had some success against him in the past,” said Kyrgios, who improved to 3-1. “I feel like we know each other’s games well. I’m not the kind of player that goes into this match looking at rankings or anything like that, it’s just who I’m playing against and what kind of ball they’re giving me.”

Kyrgios is coming off a win in Washington last week and has won 14 of his last 15 matches, losing to Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final.

.

“Today I had a very clear goal of how I was going to play: a lot of serving and volleying, a lot of aggressive play from behind,” Kyrgios said. “I executed better than him, that’s all. He won the first set and I feel like I had chances there too, so hopefully I can keep it up.”

The contest followed another exciting one that saw USA’s Tommy Paul eliminate second seed Carlos Alcaraz of Spain 6-7(4), 7-6(7), 6-3 in a three-hour, 20-minute battle. .

“I was a little bit lucky in the second tiebreak,” said Paul, who avoided a match point.

“It’s good to finish games at the net,” he said after coming forward to convert his fifth match point. “He made a good passing shot there on the last point and I covered the line well, volleyed it well. I think I did a lot of things right today. I played a good level of tennis, especially there in the third set, so I’m happy to go through.”

.

“I felt like he was in his service games,” said Paul, who described the win as the biggest of his career. “In the second set I felt like I could break. I didn’t expect to recover two breaks and serve for the set, (but) I felt like I was playing comfortable tennis overall. I stuck to the game plan and played well.”

Alcaraz, 19, was making the transition from clay to hard courts and said the first match in a tournament is always difficult, particularly when your opponent has a match under their belt.

“Right now, all I can say is that it was the first time I couldn’t handle the pressure,” Alcaraz said. “I felt the pressure of being the No. 2 seed in this type of tournament, the No. 4 in the world.

“All I can say about this game is that I have to train, I have to be ready to have this pressure, have this kind of moment and learn to handle it.”

.

Fourth seed Casper Ruud of Norway defeated Alex Molcan of Slovakia 7-6(3), 6-3, while seventh seed Jannik Sinner of Italy had a scare before beating French qualifier Adrian Mannarino 2-6, 6- 4, 6-2.

Croatia’s 13th seed Marin Cilic defeated Russia’s Karen Khachanov 6-3, 6-2, but Bulgaria’s 15th seed Grigor Dimitrov was defeated by Australia’s Alex de Minaur 7-6(4), 7-5.

While Alcaraz hesitated, two Spaniards advanced. Roberto Bautista Agut, the 14th seed, defeated Jenson Brooksby of the USA 7-5, 6-1 and Pablo Carreno Busta had no problem beating Holger Rune of Denmark 6-0, 6-3.

Gaël Monfils, the 17th seed from France, defeated French-American Maxime Cressy 7-6 (10), 7-6 (6).

[email protected]

twitter.com/zababes1