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'Kyrgios can beat Murray'

Nick Kyrgios’ win last night was just so impressive.

I hadn’t watched it until he was two sets down but gee whiz, what a comeback.

It is very rare, first of all, that a 19-year-old can last five sets and play such quality tennis, let alone come back from two sets to love down.

That impressed me in a number of ways.

Firstly, physically, that Nick was able to play at such a high level for the entire match.

But mentally, to be able to stay up for that whole time is pretty amazing.

And I think that is why he engages so much with the crowd.

It gives him a slight mental break between each point. It keeps him fresh for when he does play and needs to narrow his focus.

He just seems to draw on the energy of the crowd, he draws on the noise and it is very similar to Lleyton Hewitt when he was a teenager.

It was pretty common for Lleyton to pump himself up after every single point. He was very vocal.

He still does it now a bit but it is tempered.

Lleyton needed to do it to get himself up and Nick really enjoys it too.

He likes the limelight, he enjoys with the crowd, engages with them and I think that is why everyone is loving coming to watch him and why it is such a big part of everyone’s loungeroom at the moment.

Australians love their tennis but more than anything Australians love characters and Nick is a character.

Next up he has Andy Murray, who is playing such great tennis.

He has slipped under the radar a bit here I think because Thanasi and Bernie and Nick were taking all the headlines.

We were fixated on Lleyton until he was beaten by Becker, we were all watching Roger Federer and then Rafa to see how his injury was going so we have not really talked about Andy Murray at all.

But last night was such a high quality game.

Grigor Dimitrov is playing top five or six bracket and Andy beat him well.

I really like how Andy has Amelie Mauresmo on his side as well, I have such huge respect for her as a player and I think she is doing great things with Murray.

What does Nick have to do to beat him?

Murray is playing top tennis. Pic: Getty
Murray is playing top tennis. Pic: Getty

I think he has to remain super aggressive because Andy has a great game in terms that he can play aggressively but adjust really well to play good defensive tennis.

He has incredible leg strength and miles in his legs so he has no problem with rallies that go 20-30 shots regularly.

So I think Nick has to keep with what makes him successful, and that is playing big and bold and really going for his shots and believing in his serve most importantly.

Can Nick do it?

Yeah, I think he can. Andy will be excited by the prospect but it is tough coming up against a young enthusiastic, big-serving, big-hitting opponent. Anything can happen so I do believe Nick can win.

And I think the louder the crowd, the better for Nick. He embraces it, engages in it and he will find a way to make that noise work for him.

Alicia Molik is a Channel Seven tennis commentator.