LONDON (Reuters) – Nick Kyrgios reached the first Grand Slam semi-final of his chequered career with a comfortable 6-4 6-3 7-6(5) victory over Chile’s Cristian Garin at Wimbledon on Wednesday.
The unseeded 27-year-old lost the opening nine points on Court One but ultimately had too much firepower for Garin who had hoped to become Chile’s first Wimbledon semi-finalist.
In surpassing his previous best Wimbledon run to the quarter-finals eight years ago, Kyrgios becomes the first Australian man to reach a Grand Slam semi-final for 17 years.
It was a generally low-volume Kyrgios, who has been summoned to appear in a Canberra court next month on an alleged assault charge, although he did lambast his sizeable entourage as the match dragged on.
There were few baseline fireworks from the Australian but his serve once again underpinned his game, digging him out of trouble whenever Garin threatened to make a contest of it.
Garin battled hard to extend the third set into a tiebreaker and looked set to drag the match into a fourth set when he led it 5-3 but Kyrgios hit back to win the last four points.
He will face Rafa Nadal or Taylor Fritz in the semis.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Ed Osmond)
