Nick Kyrgios has reached the first Grand Slam semi-final of his career, with a comfortable 6-4 6-3 7-6(5) victory over Chile's Cristian Garin at Wimbledon.
The unseeded 27-year-old lost the opening nine points on Court One, but ultimately had too much firepower for Garin, who hoped to become Chile's first Wimbledon semi-finalist.
In surpassing his previous best Wimbledon run to the quarter-finals eight years ago, Kyrgios becomes the first Australian man to reach a Grand Slam semi-final for 17 years.
On the eve of the match, Kyrgios was summoned to appear in a Canberra court next month on an alleged assault charge, hardly ideal preparation for one of his biggest matches.
But he managed to put any offcourt distractions aside in a relatively low-volume display, sprinkled occasionally with the instinctive shotmaking that makes him such a draw.
"An amazing atmosphere again," Kyrgios said. "I never thought I'd be in the semi-final of a Grand Slam.
"I thought that ship had sailed - that I may have wasted that window in my career. I'm really happy I was able to come out here with my team and put on a performance."
Meanwhile, for almost 45 minutes, Simona Halep handed out a public flogging to a shell-shocked Amanda Anisimova in their quarter-final.
Anisimova was so bad, fellow American John McEnroe quipped: "This is bordering on embarrassing... this will be over in 10 minutes."
McEnroe's prediction was a little off, but Romanian Halep will fancy her chances of reaching a second Wimbledon final in three editions, after subjecting a red-faced Anisimova to a 6-2 6-4 mauling on Centre Court.
"It's great to be back in the semi-finals," a beaming Halep told the crowd, after setting up a last-four showdown with 17th seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan.
"I'm very emotional right now - it means a lot."
Reuters
