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Kei Nishikori battled back from a brutal opening set to take down Nick Kyrgios in three, 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, in a heated second-round battle at the Shanghai Masters that featured great tennis and the usual chaos that seems to follow the Aussie around wherever he plays.

Kyrgios was all business in the first set—and it showed. He raced out to a 5-0 lead over Nishikori and saved all six break points he faced to ensure that Japan’s No. 1 couldn’t come back.

Though the second set was competitive, Kyrgios’ grip on his business-like demeanor began to slip. He became heated after a bad call didn’t go his way early in the set and argued with umpire Mo Lahyani before he was told by the umpire to not let it affect his whole match.

Kyrgios got over that call, and was given only a soft warning for an audible obscenity later in the set, which was good-natured but could have easily been ruled a code violation.

Finally, in the final game of set two, Kyrgios was given a code violation when he smacked a ball in anger after missing a first serve (see video above).

Drama was in the tennis as well as both Nishikori and Kyrgios marched through much of the third set easily holding serve. But in the tenth game a Kyrgios double-fault gave Nishikori two match points.

Both were saved by Kyrgios with the clutch serving that characterized his game on this day, as was a third (Kyrgios saved 10 of 12 break points on the night), but when Nishikori rallied from game point down to force a fourth match point, he capitalized to seal the victory in 1:53.

It is not known what type of fine--if any--Kyrgios will receive for his code violation, but according to sources, he could receive a fine of up to $10k:



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