Advertisement

Kyrgios fumes as rain wreaks havoc in Cincinnati

Nick Kyrgios has been forced to wait to progress to the quarter-finals of the Cincinnati Masters after his clash with Ivo Karlovic was delayed by rain.

The match will resume on Saturday after bad weather interrupted the third-round encounter with Karlovic leading the Australian 4-3 on serve.

Kyrgios looked slightly stronger in the early going, creating two break points in the fifth game but failing to take either.

Kyrgios in action. Image: Getty
Kyrgios in action. Image: Getty

The Aussie looked clearly frustrated by the stopping and starting and pleaded with the chair umpire at one stage to keep playing.

"It's for your own safety," the umpire told Kyrgios.

"It's fine though," Nick said. "It's not slippery. It's barely raining."

Kyrgios pleads his case. Image: Fox Sports
Kyrgios pleads his case. Image: Fox Sports

Considering Kyrgios has been criticised recently for a perceived lack of desire, his willingness to play through the rain showed he may have turned a corner.

The young Aussie retired hurt in his first match in Washington earlier this month and could be seen saying "I don't want to play" to his mother in the crowd.

For Kyrgios to now be showing this level of desire to play and win either says he's found his focus again, or he simply doesn't want to have to restart a close match on another day.

The winner will play the victor of soon to be world No.1 Rafael Nadal's clash with Spanish countryman Albert Ramos Vinolas.

Meanwhile, Grigor Dimitrov has rallied from a 4-1 second-set deficit for a 6-3 7-5 win over Juan Martin del Potro to reach the quarter-finals.

The seventh-seeded Dimitrov had to tighten up his game to pick up his first career win in six matches against Del Potro. Dimitrov improved to 15-13 in his last 28 matches after opening the season 16-1.

David Ferrer reached his first ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final in his last 11 attempts with a 6-4 6-4 win over countryman Pablo Carreno Busta.

The veteran Spaniard will face third-seeded Dominic Thiem in the last eight after the Austrian edged unseeded Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-3).

Both players broke serve three times over the course of the two-hour contest, in which Thiem managed to assert his superiority in the tiebreakers.

Also advancing Friday to the quarter-finals was American wildcard Jared Donaldson, a 6-4 7-6 (7-4) winner over unseeded Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili.

with AAP