Nick Kyrgios is a match away from becoming Australia’s fist male Wimbledon singles champion in 20 years.
A match that will be no walk in the park to win, of course. Boasting 20 Grand Slam titles, world no.1 Novak Djokovic has a clear advantage over ‘newcomer’ Kyrgios who is chasing his first majors title.
But the Greek Australian holds a 2-0 record over Djokovic. Both times – and the only ones – he played against the Serbian, on hard courts in 2017, the win came in straight sets.
While ranked 40th in the world, sports analysts point out Kyrgios’ odds for beating world no. 1 are not that bad.
In recent years he has managed victories over some of the greatest players, including Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, with a total of 25 wins against opponents ranked in the top 10.
But Djokovic, a six-times Wimbledon champion hopes “the experience can work” in his favour.
“We haven’t played for some time. I’ve never won a set off him. Hopefully it can be different this time,” said the 35-year-old promising an action-packed Sunday match.
“The job is not finished. One thing is for sure – there are going to be a lot of fireworks emotionally from both.”
Whether or not he manages to overtake the world no.1, in Kyrgios’ mind and heart he has already made history for having a go at raising his first Grand Slam trophy.
“Whether I win or lose on Sunday, I’m going to be happy. It’s such a great achievement that I thought I’d never be a part of.
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“Especially at 27, I feel this is, like, for me, I thought it was the later stages of my career. But I just never thought it would be right here. I have a chance,” he said on Friday, a day after learning his semi-final opponent Rafael Nadal had withdrawn due to an abdominal injury.
Although he said it was a match he want to play against the Spaniard, the ticket straight to the finals gave Kyrgios two days of extra rest.
The bonus time off will come handy before the biggest match of his career, as Kyrgios was admitting on Friday he was already feeling both the excitement and the pressure.
“I had a shocking sleep last night, though, to be honest. I probably got an hour’s sleep just with everything, like the excitement. I had so much anxiety, I was already feeling so nervous, and I don’t feel nervous usually.
“I was thinking just playing, obviously imagining myself winning, imagining myself losing, everything.”
The Wimbledon men’s singles final will take place at 11pm AEST on Sunday 10 June.
