Kyrgios Storms Into Atlanta Quarter-Finals

Nick Kyrgios waited for a thunderstorm to pass, then rained nine aces to down Jared Donaldson 7-6(4), 6-3 to book a place in the quarter-finals of the BB&T Atlanta Open on Thursday. The #NextGen star improved to 27-11 in 2016 and is currently a career-best No. 18 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. Kyrgios is hunting for a second ATP World Tour title after winning in Marseille earlier this year.

“I knew that Jared had a good week last week, so he was confident. I haven’t played too much tennis recently, so I’m happy to be though. The conditions really suited my game,” Kyrgios said. “I like the set-up here, with the hotel so close to the courts. It’s a great environment.”

Donaldson is coming off a strong run at the Rogers Cup, where he qualified for the main draw and reached the third round before falling to Milos Raonic. The 19-year-old American held a break point at 3-3 before the opening set was interrupted due to rain, but was unable to win a point returning Kyrgios’ serve in the tie-break. A confident Kyrgios raced to a 4-0 lead in the second set before securing the win in 76 minutes. He only dropped five first-serve points (30/35) and broke the Donaldson serve three times (3/5) during the match.

“It’s tough to return on this surface, and the ball flies quite a bit, but as soon as I won the first set, I began to feel more comfortable,” Kyrgios said. “I’ll have a tough match tomorrow. I’ll need to play even better than tonight.”

Next up for the No. 2 seed is Fernando Verdasco, who eased past Julien Benneteau 6-1, 6-3. The Spaniard improved to 5-0 in his FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry with the Frenchman, who earned his first hard-court victory of the season in the first round (d. Smith). The 32 year old won 21 of 25 first-serve points and did not face break point in the 58-minute win.

Kyrgios won his lone FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting with Verdasco. Last year in Montreal, the Aussie prevailed 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the first round of the Rogers Cup.