Greek-Australia Nick Kyrgios has stunned top seed Roger Federer 6-7 (2-7) 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (14-12)
to knock the Swiss star out of the Madrid Open.
Federer
saved five match points on Wednesday night (Thursday morning AEST) before
driving a forehand cross-court wide.
The
20-year-old Kyrgios won on his sixth match point while saving three Federer
match-winning chances in their second round clash, which lasted two hours and
37 minutes.
Earlier,
Rafael Nadal has returned to his claycourt comfort zone, starting his campaign
for a fifth Madrid Open title with a 6-4 6-3 defeat of Steve Johnson.
The victory
in 74 minutes lifted Nadal's clay record over Americans to a perfect 10-0 while
the third seed improved to 12-3 on the surface this season.
The
nine-time French Open champion has four Madrid titles and has played in six
finals at his showcase home event.
He is aiming
to extend his streak of winning at least one European ATP clay title leading
into Roland Garros to 11 straight years.
Nadal goes
on to face Italy's Simone Bolelli for a quarter-final spot.
"I
think I played a solid match, I played the way I needed to to win that match. I
know after a loss like Barcelona (third round) things are not easy when you're
playing the next match," said Nadal.
"I
tried to play the easiest way possible without trying very difficult shots, and
trying to be better and better during the match."
Nadal was
joined in the third round by sixth seed Tomas Berdych, who accounted for
weekend Estoril winner Richard Gasquet 7-6 (7-3) 7-5.
Spanish
seventh seed David Ferrer beat Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-4 6-0 and Madrid's
Fernando Verdasco knocked out US Open champion Marin Cilic 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (7-5)
6-3.
Bulgarian
tenth seed Grigor Dimitrov came back to beat Italian Fabio Fognini 3-6 6-2 7-5
while No.12 Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat American Jack Sock 6-3 1-6 7-6
(7-4).
John Isner,
the 16th seed, fired 23 aces to defeat Brazil's Thomaz Bellucci 7-6 (7-5) 6-7
(11-13) 6-1.
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