Nick Kyrgios channels Roger Federer in impressive Queen’s win

Nick Kyrgios has lit up the tennis world with an extraordinary display of his freakish talents at Queen’s Club.

Nick Kyrgios was in flamboyant form against Britain’s Kyle Edmund at Queen’s. Picture: AFP

Nick Kyrgios has lit up the tennis world with an extraordinary display of his freakish talents en route to the Queen’s Club quarter-finals.

The mercurial Australian No 1 used the Wimbledon lead-up event as the stage to showcase his Roger Federer-like qualities during a 7-6 (7-3) 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 second-round win over British No 1 Kyle Edmund.

Kyrgios’s exhibition-style mimicking of Federer’s silky serve, as well as the delivery of flamboyant Frenchman Gael Monfils, left some of the greats of the game gobsmacked.

Former women’s world No 1 Tracey Austin could scarcely believe Kyrgios still managed to rain down 32 aces while often copycatting his peers’ serves.

“I’ve never seen this. It actually looked like an exhibition,” Austin marvelled on the Tennis Channel.

“When you’ve got such a big serve, why try to copy Roger’s?”

Kyrgios also mixed tweener lob winners with the usual flurry of forehand and backhand winners to further underline his credentials as one of Federer’s more serious Wimbledon threats next month.

But the 23-year-old also came under fire for swearing during the impressive victory.

Kyrgios, though, insisted afterwards he was unfazed that the BBC, who were showing the match live in the UK, had to apologise for his bad language.

“Fine. I don’t care,” Kyrgios said. He then asked a reporter who pressed him on the outburst: “Do you swear? No, do you swear? Yes or no? Yes or no? Do you swear? Do you swear? Okay, great. Good question.” Kyrgios, who lost to Federer in a third-set tiebreak last week in Stuttgart before opening his Queen’s campaign with victory over Andy Murray, had won his only previous ATP World tour meeting with Edmund at the 2014 Nottingham Challenger event.

But he knew he would face a real battle to prevent the seventh seed reaching the last eight for the second time in three years.

He was pleased to win after two hours and 11 minutes.

“I’m feeling pretty relaxed and 32 aces helps,” Kyrgios said. “It was a pretty high-level match from both players.

“Obviously I served really, really well. I found my rhythm quite early.

“I feel pretty good. I got a bit tight towards the end of the match, which is normal. I haven’t played a lot of matches in the last couple of months.”

Unseeded 12-time grand slam champion Novak Djokovic thumped second-seeded Grigor Dimitrov 6-4 6-1 for his first victory over a top-10 opponent since last May.

AAP