{"id":16862,"date":"2019-07-03T11:10:20","date_gmt":"2019-07-03T15:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=16862"},"modified":"2019-07-03T12:37:07","modified_gmt":"2019-07-03T16:37:07","slug":"wimbledon-2019-rafael-nadal-sets-up-an-exciting-clash-with-nick-kyrgios","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2019\/07\/03\/wimbledon-2019-rafael-nadal-sets-up-an-exciting-clash-with-nick-kyrgios\/","title":{"rendered":"Rafael Nadal Sets Up An Exciting Clash With Nick Kyrgios"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As soon as the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/wimbledon\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wimbledon<\/a> draw was out, tennis watchers from around the globe flocked to the idea of a potential Rafael Nadal vs Nick Kyrgios showdown in the second round. The Australian certainly looked out of sorts at times in his first round match but finally, we have our much-awaited matchup.<\/p>\n<h2>Rafael Nadal vs Nick Kyrgios<\/h2>\n<h3>History<\/h3>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1159692969\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 71.54882% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/1159692969?et=ht9nuFSHS5ZqAQcqY1aOCQ&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=WBTTtgnhFQ6NAPPK4kmHNzd5pVb3U8muFi_nxolih3w=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"425\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Nadal- Kyrgios rivalry has come full circle for it was here at SW19 in 2014 where they met for the first time. The Wimbledon 2014 match gave birth to an intriguing rivalry which has never ceased to be eventful. They are currently tied 3-3 but in recent times their off-court comments on each other have added lots of spice to this rivalry.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/2019\/05\/15\/nick-kyrgios-podcast-ben-rothenberg\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">This May, when asked about Rafael Nadal on a podcast Kyrgios replied<\/a>, \u201cHe\u2019s my polar opposite. He\u2019s super salty every time I beat him.\u201d There\u2019s no doubt that they are in fact polar opposites in how they conduct themselves on the court and the way they play their tennis.<\/p>\n<p>Nadal hasn\u2019t held himself back either voicing his opinion on Kyrgios openly after his loss to the Australian at this year\u2019s Acapulco Open. The Spaniard condemned the Australian\u2019s attitude lacking respect towards the audience and his opponent. If there\u2019s one thing for certain it\u2019s that Nadal doesn\u2019t like to face Kyrgios.<\/p>\n<p>On the court, one can easily spot the uneasiness on Nadal\u2019s face when he\u2019s playing Kyrgios. The Australian with his humongous serve and heavy groundstrokes makes life extremely difficult for Rafa. The underarm serve is the latest addition to the enigmatic Australian\u2019s game and he even tried to use it when they met in Acapulco.<\/p>\n<p>Five years ago when they met at Wimbledon, Nick Kyrgios was relatively unknown in the tennis circuit until he took on Rafa in the fourth round. The clash had everything from booming serves to an outrageous winner from Kyrgios. You have to see it to believe it.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Nick Kyrgios hits &#039;shot of the year&#039; v Nadal - Wimbledon 2014\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7DJgHwseiDI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>What To Expect<\/h3>\n<p>With Nick Kygrios you just never know. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2019\/07\/02\/wimbledon-mens-day-2-recap\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Take his first round<\/a>, for example, which he won 7-6 (4) 3-6 7-6 (10) 0-6 6-1. The kind of ebbs and flows this match had can only be associated with Kyrgios. Touted as one of the future champions of the game after he burst onto the scene in 2014, Kyrgios hasn\u2019t quite lived up to the expectations. A man of immense talent, it\u2019s the mental fortitude where he lacks, at times looking extremely disinterested on the court. The Australian\u2019s game boosts up whenever he faces Nadal and one can only hope Kyrgios can produce another performance for the ages.<\/p>\n<p>For Rafael Nadal, he didn\u2019t want to talk about Nick Kyrgios ahead of his first-round match but now he\u2018d have to. \u00a0The Spaniard is extremely vulnerable against the likes of Kyrgios especially in the first week here at Wimbledon. For his fans, his first round match is a great sign that he\u2019s feeling well on the grass dominating the Japanese Yuichi Sugita 6-3 6-1 6-3. Nadal knows he has a huge task ahead of him but like all great champions of the game, he\u2019ll no doubt be relishing it.<\/p>\n<p>Expecting at least one underarm serve though.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1159664303\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 70.20203% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/1159664303?et=TX1VBeP5RZBZBtoJD-hLDA&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=nrWktFNFn4WQ8zhJl_5W5NIsmx8kDC6zBW_ypceRIk0=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"417\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As soon as the Wimbledon draw was out, tennis watchers from around the globe flocked to the idea of a potential Rafael Nadal vs Nick Kyrgios showdown in the second round. The Australian certainly looked out of sorts at times in his first round match but finally, we have our much-awaited matchup. Rafael Nadal vs [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3075,"featured_media":16918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3,2],"tags":[7030,7044,7028,209,7029,135,7007,3468,48,21,7031,3354],"class_list":["post-16862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wimbledon","category-atp","category-featured","tag-kyrgios-wimbledon","tag-nadal-vs-kyrgios","tag-nadal-wimbledon","tag-nick-kyrgios","tag-nick-kyrgios-wimbledon","tag-rafael-nadal","tag-rafael-nadal-vs-nick-kyrgios","tag-rafael-nadal-wimbledon","tag-tennis","tag-wimbledon","tag-wimbledon-2nd-round","tag-wimbledon-day-4"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3075"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}