Will the Aussie lose to Kohlschreiber, or beat him (as he should) and then pull-out against Novak?
Here’s what Nick is up-against.
Djokovic said: ‘We’ve always been aware of his qualities and talent, and he’s got big weapons in his game: serve, obviously one of the best serves on the tour; big forehand and can play well on different surfaces. ‘It’s just whether he’s consistent or not, so that’s what we’re going to see. ‘I lost to him both times that I played against him. If I get a chance to play against him… I’ll look forward to that because he’s in-form. On the other hand, I started the season very well. I hope I can restart here where I stopped in Australia.
Novak is 0-2, as we know, lost to him on this very court in 2017. The Serb wants none other than to etch a win in this H2H and, more important to Novak I’m sure, remind everyone how dominant is the world No. 1’s game.
Interesting little sidebar on tennis class. Against Federer, I recall Kyrgios more or less behaving himself, endeavoring with all of his might to upset the favored Swiss.
Against Novak, I seem to recall Kyrgios simply playing well and beating a less than top form Djokovic. No act on the Aussie’s part that I recall.
But against Nadal, Nick acted pretty much like an asshole, at least in Acapulco — what does that say about Nadal? This pissed-off Nadal; of course losing really put the sting to Rafa, which helped fuel those post-match criticisms of Kyrgios.
But Nick was critical of Nadal in return, calling-out his slow play, and basically saying that Nadal doesn’t know him; therefore, Nick by no stretch of the imagination would take seriously Rafa’s opinions.
Kyrgios, I suspect, will have to be on his best behavior against Djokovic this week, or want nothing to do with a vengeful Serb who might want to embarrass the often unrestrained Aussie.
We’ll be watching too for an in-form Nick bringing more of that ascendant play to this highly anticipated 3R clash.
What will Kyrgios do?
Mcshow Blog 