Daniil Medvedev faces Nick Kyrgios in the second round of the 2022 Australian Open on Thursday, January 20th 2022.
Will Nick Kyrgios give the crowd what they want and shock the tennis world as he aims to beat the world no.2 in his second match of the year, or will it be business as usual for Medvedev as he aims to build momentum in his title campaign?
Nick Kyrgios came out in style in his first match back in a fair few months, beating the qualifier, Liam Broady, in straight sets without hesitation. From start to finish, Nick was getting along with the crowd and feeding off of them to ensure that the momentum was on his side. When Nick is in this sort of form and mentality, he can be extremely tough to beat. Will he be able to get his best level out as he meets the highest ranked player in the tournament?
Daniil Medvedev had an easy opponent in his opening round in Henri Laaksonen, beating the Swiss in straight sets with relative ease. Medvedev will know that with Novak not playing here, he is the big favorite for the title and he will come out here ready to double his grand slam title count, especially in this side of the draw where his only real threat is Stefanos Tsitsipas. However, Nick Kyrgios can definitely cause him some trouble here.
This is going to be the 3rd meeting between both players, and this is going to probably be the most entertaining match of the day. Nick, when playing against the best players, always seems to bring out his best, but he will know that he is not as ready as others might be just because of the fact that he did not play any matches this year, except for his opening match here in Australia. Medvedev can get rilled up, but he also thrives when the crowd is against him.