By Richard Pagliaro | Friday, February 19, 2016
Nick Kyrgios slammed 17 aces and won 26 of 27 first-serve points dismissing Richard Gasquet, 6-0, 6-4.
Photo credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve
The back wall wasn't baring bruise marks, but it sounded creaky and pained by the time Nick Kyrgios was done banging it up in a Marseille mauling.
Unleashing four straight aces, Kyrgios closed a 6-0, 6-4 obliteration of Richard Gasquet with a flashy wall-blasting fury.
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Smacking winners from the baseline and slamming unreturnable serves with menacing efficiency, Kyrgios reduced one of the game's great shotmakers to spectator status. Gasquet. who had won four of their prior five matches, could only watch it happen.
Kyrgios roared into the Marseille final four with one of the most commanding performances of his career. And with the exception of a bizarre second-set eruption that saw him suddenly barking at his box, the 20-year-old Aussie barely looked stress getting the job done.
Overwhelming on serve, Kyrgios cracked 17 aces against no double faults, won 26 of 27 points on his first serve and blasted serves that left one of the game's most skilled players looking as helpless as a hitchiker stranded next to a desolate expressway.
Kyrgios roped a running backhand winner down the line opening with a break. He buzzed an ace backing up the break at 15 for 2-0.
Charging in behind a forehand drop shot and angling off a backhand dropper, Kyrgios won a flashy 18-point rally for double break point. That sequence left Gasquet's co-coach Sebastien Grosjean raising an eyebrow at the audacity of the world No. 41. Two points later, Krygios spun another backhand down the line breaking for 3-0.
Three massive forehands from Kyrgios— the first a slapshot crosscourt winner and second a sharp inside-out winner —left Gasquet dazed, the crowd hushed and Kyrgios looking capable of anything. He was playing high-speed tennis and hitting winners almost at will.
It took Kyrgios just 20 minutes to dispense a bagel to the undefeated Frenchman, hitting 11 more winners (13 to 2) than Gasquet.
Hanging tough in the second set, Gasquet survived a couple of break points digging through a near eight-minute service hold for 4-3.
A raging Kyrgios, apparently annoyed his support box wasn't more vocal on his break-point chances, began yelling at his team, including his brother, "not one bit! not one bit! unbelievable!"
Even when there's little drama between the lines, Kyrgios manages to create some on his own. At one point, Kyrgios was pointing to the door as if encouraging his team to head for the exit.
Instead, after all that mania, he settled down and showed Gasquet the door. Kyrgios drilled a forehand down the line breaking for 5-4.
His explosive four-ace exclamation point sealed a declarative victory. Kyrgios will play either second-seeded Tomas Berdych or sixth-seeded David Goffin in the semifinals.