Nick Kyrgios made the quarter-finals in his first Wimbledon.

Australia woke to a new sporting champion on Wednesday and if Nick Kyrgios charmed Wimbledon, back home he turned the world into a very nice place.

Tennis used to be Australia’s middle name. Surnames such as Hoad, Laver, Rosewall, Court, Goolagong, Newcombe and Cash were woven into the national fabric but in recent years only Lleyton Hewitt, Sam Stosur and Bernard Tomic have occasionally managed to raise the banner high.

Making his Wimbledon debut, Kyrgios reached for the stars when he beat world number one Rafael Nadal in the fourth round.

It was one of the greatest upsets in the tournament's history. Australia, and the tennis world generally, was nearly as stunned as Nadal.
Only hours before the match, the American commentator John McEnroe had dismissed the 19-year-old’s chances against Nadal. Not only was he playing courtesy of a wildcard entry but being ranked 144th did little to enhance his chances against the 28-year-old Spaniard. Besides, playing on the Centre Court was enough to rattle any neophyte.


Four sets later, the Canberran prevailed, 7–6, 5–7, 7–6, 6–3. But youth versus experience or not, it was a tough, close match with Kyrgios claiming 140 points to Nadal’s 137. The Canberran reeled off 37 aces. But it was his cheeky ‘‘tweener’’ - a between the legs stroke that popped the ball out of Nadal’s reach - that went viral on YouTube, quickly amassing more than 500,000 views.


McEnroe ate his words, recalibrated and predicted Kyrgios was equipped to make the distance to the Wimbledon championship.
Back home, everybody agreed with McEnroe. Delirium set in. More than 300 articles on the giant killer appeared in the media. The number of followers on Kyrgios’s Twitter site doubled in a day to 70,300.


Killing a giant turned him into an overnight sensation but Kyrgios has been coming on for years.

The son of a Greek housepainter, Giorgos Kyrgios, and a Malaysian computer engineer, Norlaila, the tennis tyro is the youngest of three: a brother, Christos, is a lawyer, and a sister, Halimah, is an actress. He attended several schools in Canberra and completedyear 12 two years ago at Daramalan College.

At 1.93m, Kyrgios was first talent-scouted for basketball and represented the ACT and Australia in under age sides. But at 14 he chose the tennis court over the basketball court and started his climb to Wimbledon at the Australian Institute of Sport.

He won his first International Tennis Federation junior tour title in Fiji in 2010 and moved into the senior ranks with a handful of victories at tournaments in the US, China, England and Sydney in the past two years. He also represented Australia in the 2013 rubber against Poland.

His spectacular Wimbledon debut means Kyrgios' ranking will shoot up to about world number 65, not least because he knocked off French 13th seed Richard Gasquet in the second round.

Slaying Nadal means the world has also become his oyster.

The haul from vanquishing Nadal, the quarter-final loser’s cheque of $411,000 dwarfed his career prizemoney earnings of $248,000. Scaling the ratings also means direct entry into the grand slams and many tour events.

His co-manager Clinton Coleman said contracts with Nike and Yonex would be renegotiated.

“We quietly believe that we’ve got maybe the best player maybe for a generation here,’’ Coleman said.

On Thursday the dream ended.
Kyrgios went down to Canadian eighth seed Milos Raonic 6-7, 6-2, 6-4, 7-6.
After the match Kyrgios said: "It's been the best couple of weeks of my life.’’

By Damien Murphy http://www.smh.com.au/sport/tennis/nick-kyrgios-slaying-rafael-nadal-has-made-the-world-his-oyster-20140704-zsw1l.html

Nick Kyrgios, another Nadal in the making?

It is UNBELIEVABLE (you need to see this to believe it), but he even embarrassed Nadal, the 14-time grand slam champion and current World No 1, with this funny and cheap shot which Nadal could not return!!!!

Please watch the 1min. video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmLaMsugcEI

You will cry for Nadal after watching the video!!!!

Is Nick the new Nadal in the making or another flash in the pan that just had a good day?