All quiet on Centre Court as calm Kyrgios beats Nakashima

LONDON: An angelic Nick Kyrgios reached his first Grand Slam quarter-final for seven years when he recovered from a slow start to beat steady American Brandon Nakashima in five sets on Wimbledon's Centre Court on Monday (Jul 4).

With Kyrgios's bad-tempered Court One victory over fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas still the talk of the town, the Australian was on his best behaviour in front of the Royal Box as he ground out a 4-6 6-4 7-6(2) 3-6 6-2 win.

Unseeded Chilean Cristian Garin awaits in the last eight after edging out Kyrgios's compatriot Alex De Minaur, offering Kyrgios a golden opportunity to surpass his quarter-final run at Wimbledon on his debut in 2014 when he stunned Rafa Nadal.

After the mayhem and toxic atmosphere of Saturday, when Kyrgios was accused by Tsitsipas of being a bully, he let his tennis do the talking against the 20-year-old Nakashima, barely uttering a word in anger throughout a contest that contained few of the fireworks usually associated with the Australian.

While his tennis did not reach the heights he managed against Tsitsipas and at times he struggled physically, Kyrgios still struck 61 winners, 31 of which were aces.

"It wasn't near my best performance, level wise, but I'm just super, super happy to get through," Kyrgios, who has now won 11 of 14 five-set matches, said on court.

"I've never lost a fifth set here. Honestly, that's what I was thinking about. I was like, I've been here before I've done it before and I came through again."

Asked about facing Garin, he said: "I'm not going to think about that. I'm going to need a glass of wine tonight for sure."

Kyrgios entertained the capacity crowd with some tweeners in the warm-up and even practised some under-arm serves.

But they were few and far