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Tennis world erupts over Nick Kyrgios and Stefanos Tsitsipas news

andrew reid
·4-min read
Pictured left to right are tennis rivals Stefanos Tsitsipas and Nick Kyrgios.
Stefanos Tsitsipas (L) will aiming to square the ledger against Nick Kyrgios when the pair go head-to-head at the Halle Open. Pic: Getty

Nick Kyrgios has kicked off his Halle Open campaign in Germany with a straight sets win that sets up a mouth-watering showdown with Stefanos Tsitsipas in the round of 16.

Kyrgios brushed aside the disappointment of his Stuttgart semi-final defeat against Andy Murray, with a 6-3 7-5 victory over Germany's Daniel Altmaier in the grass court tournament.

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The Aussie revealed he was subjected to racial slurs during the semi-final encounter with Murray, in which he incurred a point and game penalty and refused to play at one point after staging a sit-down protest.

The win saw Kyrgios improve his record on grass to 4-1 this season, with the 27-year-old happy with the form he's showing.

"I felt pretty good," Kyrgios, who did not face a break point in the victory, said.

"I felt like I didn't have my best serving day. But from the back of the court I did everything I could. Obviously it's grass. And he's a German, playing pretty free ... he really started to get the crowd involved, got himself going. So I'm pretty happy with the way I closed that out."

The Aussie's win earned him a second round tie against second seed Tsitsipas, who downed Benjamin Bonzi 7-6 (7-1) 1-6 6-3.

Tsitsipas, who also lost to Murray in Stuttgart, had to fight hard to beat the 52nd-ranked Bonzi in one hour 55 minutes to take his tour-leading tally to 36 wins in 2022.

Tsitsipas is bidding for his second title of the year and his first on grass.

Seen here, Stefanos Tsitsipas playing a backhand against Benjamin Bonzi at the Halle Open.
Stefanos Tsitsipas plays a backhand in his match against Benjamin Bonzi at the Halle Open in Germany. Pic: Getty

"I can say playing him on grass for sure is going to be quite difficult," Tsitsipas said of Kyrgios, against whom he holds a 1-2 record with one hard-court match in each of the past three years.

"I'm just going to go out there and enjoy myself. Let's see what that brings."

"He's fired up playing on the grass-court season. I'm fired up too. I really hope to have a great match against him and be able to really sustain the level at its very highest."

Fans eagerly awaiting Tsitsipas-Kyrgios showdown

The match-up has left tennis fans licking their lips at the prospect of the pair once again locking horns.

Elsewhere, third seed Andrey Rublev suffered an early elimination, losing 7-6 (7-1) 6-4 to Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia.

The fourth-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime defeated Marcos Giron 6-3 5-7 6-3 for a second-round clash with the sixth-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta, who defeated Danish teenager Holger Rune on Monday.

Sebastian Korda defeated Cristian Garin 6-2 6-3 but fellow American Maxime Cressy lost 6-4 4-6 6-4 to the fifth-seeded Pole Hubert Hurkacz.

Roberto Bautista Agut was leading Marton Fucsovics 6-2 3-0 when the Hungarian retired for the second successive tournament.

with AAP

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