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Patna : World No 2 and top seed Rafael Nadal, 32, Spain, crashed out of the Mexican Open, an ATP 500 points tournament played on blue hard courts, at Acapulco, Mexico, losing in three-sets in the second round to brilliant but erratic Nick Kyrgios, 23, Australia, the World No 72, on February 28, 2019.
Kyrgios, who was struggling physically during the match, stunned Nadal, a former two-time champion, 3-6, 7-6, 7-6 in 3 hr 3 minutes to level their head to head record 3-3. Kyrgios made a strong comeback after losing the first set. He fired 21 Aces in the match to 8 by Nadal. Kyrgios though committed 6 double faults to 3 by Nadal. Incidentally, Nadal’s winning percentage both on his first and second serve ( 84% & 69%) was better than that of Kyrgios (81% & 53 %). Nadal won 3 games in a row in the match to 2 by Kyrgios.
Kyrgios has also defeated World No 1 Novak Djokovic, 31, Serbia, twice in the past and a has 2-0 head to head record against him. He has also defeated Roger Federer once.