Wimbledon 2014: John McEnroe backs teen sensation Nick Kyrgios to follow in Boris Becker's footsteps

 
Young gun: Nick Kyrgios pulls off the biggest win of his career and says he feels at home on the big stage
Chris Jones2 July 2014

John McEnroe believes Nick Kyrgios can emulate Boris Becker and become a teenage Wimbledon champion after his incredible triumph over Rafael Nadal on Centre Court.

The world No144 won 7-6, 5-7, 7-6, 6-3 to become the first player outside the top 100 to defeat the sport’s No1 at a Grand Slam since Andrei Olhovsky’s victory over Jim Courier in the third round here in 1992.

Kyrgios is 19, two years older than Becker was when he won the first of his three Wimbledon titles in 1985 and McEnroe thinks the Australian could also go all the way.

“The last guy I saw like this was Boris Becker with no fear and he is acting to me like he can win the whole tournament,” said McEnroe, a three-time Wimbledon champion.

“Amazingly, it was Nadal who looked a bit weary in the fourth set and for Kyrgios to lose the third and then win the match was superb. You are watching someone who is going to be a big star in the future.”

Kyrgios got a wild card to get into the tournament and the way he handled the occasion has marked him out as a special talent.

When he stepped up to serve for the match at 5-3 in the fourth set, across the net was Nadal, a man who had just won a ninth French Open title. Despite this daunting prospect Kyrgios fired off four big serves culminating in an ace to claim victory over the 14-time Grand Slam champion.

To fulfil McEnroe’s prediction Kyrgios needs to beat No8 seed Milos Raonic tonight then either Roger Federer or Stanislas Wawrinka in the semis and win a final against probably either Andy Murray or Novak Djokovic.

However, Kyrgios knows Canadian Raonic has a fearsome power game of his own.

“Milos probably has the best serve in the world and I am just going to go out there and have fun again,” said Kyrgios. “There will be a lot of walking from side to side from his serve, and there’s going to be a lot of winners in the match. It’s going to be hard to find rhythm.”

Kyrgios is trying to remain calm and is relying on his Greek-born father George and sister, Halimah, who have flown over from Canberra, to keep him focused on his next match.

He said: “That’s the biggest win of my career and that’s something I will never forget. It’s definitely been the best week of my life.

“I love being on the big stage, it’s something I thrive on, the atmosphere, the crowd. I just love that feeling. I never thought I was going to make the quarter-finals in my first appearance, having lost in the first round of a Challenger three weeks ago and considered flying home. But I stayed strong.”

Our favourite images from Wimbledon

1/93

Kyrgios’s mother, Norlaila, has remained in Australia and despite family loyalty predicted that Nadal would beat her son.

“I actually read a comment that she thought Rafa was too good for me,” he said. “It actually made me a bit angry.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in