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Tuesday 28 January 2020

Steady Nadal beats animated Kyrgios in 4 at Australian Open

By HOWARD FENDRICH five-time NBA champion
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) and 18-time All-Star who
— Rafael Nadal left the died in a helicopter crash
muttering and the preen- Sunday at age 41.
ing, the underarm serving Kyrgios switched to a No.
and the 'tweening, to his 24 Bryant shirt for his post-
younger, flashier oppo- match news conference
nent, Nick Kyrgios. and described himself as
Surely, Nadal was content emotional at the news.
to collect the win in the A video tribute to Bryant
latest installment of their ri- was played on the Rod La-
valry. ver Arena scoreboards be-
The No. 1-ranked Nadal fore Monday's match.
kept his thoughts to himself On Wednesday, the
and limited his shot-making 33-year-old Nadal's 41st
to the more traditional va- career Grand Slam quar-
riety in an entertaining 6-3, terfinal will be against No.
3-6, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (4) victory 5 Dominic Thiem in a re-
over home-crowd favor- match of the past two
ite Kyrgios on Monday to Australia's Nick Kyrgios is airborne as he attempts to return a shot to Spain's Rafael Nadal during French Open finals, both
reach the Australian Open their fourth round singles match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Aus- won by Nadal.
quarterfinals and get clos- tralia, Monday, Jan. 27, 2020. The other men's quarterfi-
er to a record-tying 20th Associated Press nal on the top half of the
Grand Slam title. bracket is No. 7 Alexan-
These two guys don't like all the time his best." That put Nadal ahead 2-1 But he regrouped and der Zverev vs. No. 15 Stan
each other. But Nadal had It certainly meant a lot to in the fourth, seemingly in pulled the win out in the Wawrinka.
nothing but nice things Kyrgios, who said: "I'm shat- charge. closing tiebreaker, which Nadal vs. Kyrgios was fasci-
to say after improving his tered to have lost tonight. "Against Nick," Nadal ended with Kyrgios putting nating to watch, in part be-
head-to-head record to These are the matches that would say afterward, "you a forehand into the net. cause of the quality of the
5-3 against Kyrgios. I want to win the most." are never (in) control." Sure, the cool, breezy con- play and in part because
"When he wants to play, Here's how the elevated Sure enough, Nadal fal- ditions played to Nadal's of the subplot of their neg-
when he is focused on stakes and tension af- tered while serving for the advantage and dulled Kyr- ative feelings toward each
what he's doing, I think he's fected both men: At 5-all win at 5-4, double-faulting gios' power-based style. But other.
a very important player for in the pivotal third-set tie- to create a pair of break there also was this: Nadal "When I criticized him in the
our sport," Nadal said, "be- breaker, Kyrgios double- points, the second of which finished with more than past," Nadal said, "it's be-
cause he has a big talent faulted. That offered up a Kyrgios converted with a twice as many winners as cause I thought he did a
and is one of these players gift-wrapped set point. But jumping forehand and cel- unforced errors, 64-27. couple of things that are
that can be very, very inter- Nadal failed to take ad- ebrated by throwing his "I'd have to win a point not right and not the right
esting for the crowd." vantage because he dou- head back and screaming. three times to win a point," image for our sport and for
While Kyrgios was up to ble-faulted right back. Spectators rose and roared Kyrgios said. the kids."
some of his usual trick shots Still, two points later, the and waved their Austra- Kyrgios delivered 25 aces They traded verbal barbs
and antics, what he never 23rd-seeded Kyrgios put a lian flags in support of the and some memorable mo- through the media last year
did was waver in his effort, forehand into the net, and 24-year-old from Canberra. ments -- including walking after Kyrgios beat Nadal at
something folks often ac- the set was Nadal's. Not "A scary game," Nadal out on court and warming a tournament in Mexico
cuse him of. long after, Kyrgios double- called it, acknowledg- up for the match in a No. 8 (which is why a spectator
"Today," Nadal said, "I think faulted again to get bro- ing he was hampered by Los Angeles Lakers jersey kept yelling "Acapulco!" in
he played very serious, tried ken at love. nerves. to honor Kobe Bryant, the the stadium Monday).q

Women's tennis tour to test

coaching from stands this season

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) an Amy Binder said, "and, continue, where a coach
— The WTA is going to test as it's difficult to regulate, goes down to the sideline
out allowing coaching from this allows for consistency in for a conversation with her
the stands at non-Grand rules across all matches." or his player.
Slam tournaments for the She said the new coaching The Grand Slam tourna-
rest of this season. policy will begin the week ments do not allow any
The tour said Monday that of Feb. 17 and be used at coaching during matches
the change amounts to let- all WTA Premier and Inter- for men or women, and
ting coaches offer the sort national tournaments. the ATP doesn't allow any
of hand signals and simple Coaches now can say a coaching at any of its
instructions that happen "few words when their play- events.
currently even though they er is on the same side of the The issue came to the fore-
have been against the rules court," Binder said. front at the 2018 U.S. Open,
United States' Serena Williams and her coach Patrick Moura- — but rarely penalized. What the WTA doesn't want when Serena Williams'
toglou react during a practice session ahead of the Australian "The premise around this tri- is more coaching from the coach, Patrick Mourato-
Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan.
17, 2020. al is that we feel coaching stands than is done now. glou, acknowledged trying
Associated Press is taking place already from On-court coaching dur- to send her a signal during
the box," WTA spokeswom- ing breaks in the action will the final.q