career crown – Michmutters
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Washington Open 2022, results, semi-finals, Nick Kyrgios def. Mikael Ymer, final, time, tennis news

Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios, seeking his first title in three years, advanced to the men’s final at the ATP and WTA Washington Open with a tight victory over Sweden’s Mikael Ymer.

Australia’s 63rd-ranked Kyrgios edged 115th-ranked Ymer 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 and will play for the crown Sunday against the later winner between top seed Andrey Rublev and Japan’s 96th-ranked Yoshihito Nishioka.

Kyrgios, who won the most recent of his six ATP titles at Washington in 2019, has a 2-1 career mark against Rublev and a 3-0 record against Nishioka.

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Nick Kyrgios celebrates victory.  (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
Nick Kyrgios celebrates victory. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images

“I didn’t get to sleep until 4.50am, I just had so much adrenaline after (the Tiafoe win),” Kyrgios said.

“I got some treatment and my body was just so sore after last night. It was an epic battle.

“I didn’t really do much today but I felt like my energy was a little flat early on today and it’s understandable, I’m only human.

“My adrenaline for the final is going to be right there and I’m super excited for it. I’ve got doubles tonight, work on my returns a little bit. I returned pretty poorly tonight I’m not going to lie, so hopefully I can turn it up a little tonight.”

Kyrgios then backed it up to book a spot in the final doubles shortly after alongside American Jack Sock, making it two victories in the space of around five hours.

Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi, trying to end a nine-year WTA title drought at age 37, and 60th-ranked Liudmila Samsonova will meet in the women’s final at the US Open tuneup.

World number 37 Kanepi eliminated Australia’s Daria Saville 6-3, 6-1 in 73 minutes while Samsonova routed China’s Wang Xiyu 6-1, 6-1 in 67 minutes.

Kyrgios won the last three points in the first-set tiebreaker, Ymer sending a forehand long to end an intense rally before Kyrgios added a service winner and overhead smash.

Ymer, who lost his only ATP final last August in Winston-Salem, botched a forehand volley in the third game of the second set to miss a chance to grab a break point.

Kyrgios earned the first break points of the match in the eighth game and took advantage on his third chance with a passing forehand winner to break for a 5-3 edge, then held to claim the match after 94 minutes on his 10th ace.

The Aussie fired 28 winners with only 15 unforced errors and dropped only four points on his second serve.

Nick Kyrgios returns a shot. Patrick Smith/Getty Images/AFPSource: AFP

Rublev seeks his 12th career crown and fourth title of the season after Marseille, Dubai and Belgrade, hoping to match Spaniards Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz for the most ATP trophies this year.

Nishioka, in his first ATP semi-final since 2020 at Delray Beach, won his only ATP title in 2018 at Shenzhen.

Nishioka and Rublev split two prior meetings, Nishioka winning at Sydney in 2019 and Rublev at last year’s ATP Cup.

Kanepi seeks her fifth career WTA title but her first since the 2013 Brussels Open. She won her only WTA hardcourt title at Brisbane in 2012.

Into her first WTA final since a 2021 Australian Open tuneup at Melbourne, Kanepi dominated Saville’s first WTA semi-final since 2018 at Acapulco.

“I played my best match,” Kanepi said. “Everything was very smooth for me. I hit a lot of lines.”

Kyrgios wins hearts with gift for fan | 00:37

Kanepi reached her first Grand Slam quarter-final since 2017 at this year’s Australian Open and credited that for a confidence boost crucial to her success this year.

“It was amazing,” she said. “I never thought I would make quarters in Australia. I thought it’s not just my place. But I played really well, and then I continued playing well. I didn’t actually put any pressure on myself to achieve something special.”

Samsonova, 23, won her only meeting with Kanepi in last year’s first round at Wimbledon. Samsonova is into her first WTA hardcourt final, having won her only prior tour final at last year’s German Open.

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Nick Kyrgios Washington Open, ATP results, scores, def Frances Tiafoe, Kyrgios vs Mikael Ymer, ranking

Australia’s Nick Kyrgios and top seed Andrey Rublev each won twice on Friday (US time) to reach the semi-finals of the ATP and WTA Washington Open.

World number eight Rublev defeated 32nd-ranked Maxime Cressy 6-4, 7-6 (10/8) in one hour and 42 minutes then eliminated 99th-ranked wildcard JJ Wolf 6-2, 6-3 in 78 minutes.

“I didn’t spend much time in court,” Rublev said of his three-hour total. “That was the main key today.”

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Rain Thursday night forced double duty upon Rublev and several others but Friday storms provided everyone a timely rest break between matches.

Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios fired 35 aces on his way to beating hometown hero Frances Tiafoe 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (14/12), 6-2 and reaching the other semi-final against Sweden’s 115th- ranked Mikael Ymer.

Australia’s 63rd-ranked Kyrgios, who won the most recent of his six ATP titles at Washington in 2019, needed only 14 minutes to complete an early win over US fourth seed Reilly Opelka 7-6 (7/1), 6-2.

Kyrgios then outlasted 27th-ranked Tiafoe after two and a half hours, yelling, “I want to go to bed,” in the third set of a match that ended at 1 in the morning.

Tiafoe won the last five points of the first-set tiebreaker, the last on his sixth ace, and had four match points in the second-set tiebreaker.

But Kyrgios answered with an ace, backhand winner, forehand volley winner and service return winner and forced a third set when Tiafoe sent a forehand long.

Tiafoe, who won a third set earlier to defeat Dutch eighth seed Botic van de Zandschulp, hit a crosscourt forehand wide to hand Kyrgios a break to open the third set and missed a backhand to drop a break in the seventh before Kyrgios held to advance.

The Aussie hit 60 winners and saved five match points in all.

The Washington Post’s Ella Brockway tweeted: “This Kyrgios-Tiafoe match is absolutely bonkers.

“There are few things in sports quite like The Nick Kyrgios Experience.”

Kyrgios wins hearts with gift for fan | 00:37

Ymer, who lost his only ATP final last August at Winston-Salem, beat 54th-ranked American Sebastian Korda 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 after two hours and 27 minutes.

Rublev, whose only other two-win day was at Washington in 2018, rolled through the first set against Wolf in 28 minutes, then broke to lead 2-1 and cruised from there.

Next in Rublev’s path is Japan’s 96th-ranked Yoshihito Nishioka, who outlasted British 16th seed Daniel Evans 7-6 (7/5), 4-6, 7-5 after three hours and 35 minutes.

“Rather than to spend two matches like me than one match like him,” Rublev said.

Nishioka improved to 5-0 all-time against the 40th-ranked Englishman in the rain-interrupted affair to reach his first ATP semi-final since 2020 at Delray Beach. His only ATP title came at Shenzhen in 2018.

“I never gave up and that’s the way I think I won,” Nishioka said. “I just focused on making a lot of balls and to play long rallies. I knew he didn’t want to because he was getting tired.”

Rublev seeks his 12th career crown and fourth title of the season after Marseilles, Dubai and Belgrade to match Spaniards Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz for the most ATP trophies this year.

Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi defeated Anna Kalinskaya 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 6-3 to reach a semi-final against Aussie Daria Saville, who beat Canadian qualifier Rebecca Marino 6-1, 7-5.

It’s Saville’s first semi-final since 2018 at Acapulco while Kanepi, her age and world rank at 37, seeks her fifth career WTA title but first since the 2013 Brussels Open.

World number 20 Victoria Azarenka, a two-time Australian Open champion, won her first match over Czech Tereza Martincova 7-6 (9/7), 6-2, but her double bid was spoiled by 21-year-old Chinese lucky loser Wang Xiyu.

Wang, seeking her first WTA title, rolled over 33-year-old Azarenka 6-1, 6-3. The 95th-ranked left-hander reached her first WTA semi-final in June at Valencia.

Wang next plays 60th-ranked Liudmila Samsonova, who upset 10th-ranked reigning US Open champion Emma Raducanu 7-6 (8/6), 6-1. The 19-year-old British second seed was seeking her first semi-final since her Grand Slam triumph,

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