Nick Kyrgios was 19 ½ hours away from one of the biggest moments of his career, playing in the Citi Open final in Washington, D.C.

But after his semi-final win on Saturday night, Kyrgios realised he had a slight problem. He had only one racquet.

The Aussie arrived in the U.S. weeks ago with five. But he donated one to an Atlanta charity, broke two during on-court tirades in Washington and the other racquet wasn’t fit for match use.

Some players walk on court with a dozen racquets before any match, let alone a final. But Kyrgios had only one.

Earlier, he had asked his dad to send five more from Canberra, Australia. But, on Saturday night, the handful of sticks were stuck in customs at FedEx’s Washington Dulles International Airport distribution centre and scheduled for a Monday delivery, too late for Kyrgios to use them for the 5 p.m. Sunday final. The centre was closed on Sunday.

At 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Kyrgios’ team texted Tournament Manager Mark Ein, explaining the situation and asking for help. Is there anything you can do?

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Ein, a longtime entrepreneur and investor in D.C., knew just who to contact. FedEx has been a longtime supporter of the ATP 500 event, and for years, Ein has been friends with Gina Adams, FedEx’s Senior Vice President of Government Affairs. He called Adams to see what she could do.

But she didn’t answer. Ein texted, nothing. He e-mailed. Still no response.

Kyrgios and his team went to bed the night before the final thinking there was a chance he would have to take the court with only one racquet.

Of course, you don’t play with two or five racquets. Having only one for the final, in theory, wouldn’t be a problem, so long as everything went perfectly: Kyrgios behaved himself, no strings popped and he didn’t have a freak slip on the court or a funny landing that caused the racquet to break.

“Obviously playing a final you want to go out there with more than one,” Kyrgios told ATPTour.com.

But by 6:30 a.m. Sunday, they had reason for hope. Adams, who had been traveling and was in Copenhagen, got back to Ein.

“We’re on it,” she said. She asked him for updates to track the FedEx delivery.

Two hours later, by 8:30 a.m., the racquets were released from the centre and sent to the tournament site. By 9:30 a.m., they had arrived at the Rock Creek Park Tennis Centre, and the racquets had been strung and were ready for Kyrgios to use for his second ATP 500 final of the season by 10:30 a.m., six and a half hours to spare.

“I was so happy we could get that done for Nick, and I think they were really appreciative of it,” Ein told ATPTour.com. “It’s our philosophy to do whatever it takes to help the players perform at their best, really whatever it takes.”

Ultimately, Kyrgios didn’t need a bundle of racquets to beat World No. 10 Daniil Medvedev and win his second ATP 500 title of the season and the sixth ATP Tour title of his career. But when Kyrgios takes the court, it’s always best to be prepared.

“[Ein] was able to pull some strings for me, and that was massive honestly for FedEx to make an exception and get me some racquets for the final, which was awesome. I’m super thankful to Mark and to FedEx,” Kyrgios said. “Everything happens for a reason. I got the racquets and got the W.”

There are few tennis fans without a strong opinion on Nick Kyrgios, tennis’ No. 1 showman and temperamental genius. Here are a few reasons why…

This week alone during his title run at the Citi Open, Kyrgios electrified crowds. He fist-bumped courtside fans and three times asked front-row patrons where to serve on match point. He hand-delivered shoes mid-match to his semi-final opponent Stefanos Tsitsipas, served underarm and threw in a ‘drop shot’ serve. He also served at more than 140mph and, of course, entertained with the obligatory tweeners, drop shots and scorching forehands. Before matches he played ping pong with kids in the players’ lounge.

“Are you not entertained,” he asked the crowd during his first-round win over Thai-Son Kwiatkowski.

But he also threw a drink bottle into the side of the umpire’s chair, scolded members of his players’ box, seemed to lose interest during the second set against Tsitsipas, tossed his racquet as frequently as a chef tosses a salad and sprinkled F-bombs into his on-court commentary as liberally as a fan throws salt on french fries.

Speaking to ATP Tour.com early in the week – before witnessing any of that – Kyrgios’ friend and two-time Wimbledon champion Andy Murray was asked to opine about the Australian’s place in the game.

“When he’s mentally engaged in the matches he’s brilliant for tennis because he has an exciting game, a big personality and he’s different,” Murray said. “People enjoy watching that. I enjoy watching that. His match with Rafa at Wimbledon was one of the best matches of the tournament. That’s really good for tennis.

“As someone who knows him well, I like him. I just want to see him do that all of the time. I don’t like it when he doesn’t try as hard as… I have behaved badly myself, so it would be hypocritical of me to say that I am an angel.”

Before Sunday’s final at the Citi Open – in which Kyrgios defeated Russian Daniil Medvedev 7-6(6), 7-6(4) – he was left with just one match racquet after a miscalculation. He started the week with just three match racquets after giving one to charity in Atlanta, and he smashed two in D.C. (His father FedExed him another five from Canberra, with the racquets arriving on site at 10 a.m. on Sunday after some help from tournament owner Mark Ein to have them extricated from Dulles airport.)

“Everyone matures at different ages,” Murray said. “Some people are ready when they are 18, 19 to deal with what comes with being a top athlete and some people aren’t ready and it takes them a bit of time. I’m hoping that with time Nick will learn and be better for it.

“When he’s engaged in tennis and wants to play he’s brilliant for the game. And when he isn’t giving his best effort and misbehaving, that’s not what people want to see. He needs to find that balance.”

Kyrgios has now won six ATP titles, including three at the 500 level (also Tokyo 2016, Acapulco 2019).

He now heads to Montreal for the Coupe Rogers, where he faces a tough opener against Brit Kyle Edmund in the first round. If he wins, he’ll face a re-match with Medvedev.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 9.20 pm EDT Sunday after the Kyrgios camp clarified that Nick began his US tour with four match racquets in Atlanta but arrived in Washington with three match racquets and one other racquet that differed from his match racquets.

Aussie Nick Kyrgios experienced a gamut of emotions on Sunday during the Citi Open final: Discomfort from his back, glee from his tweeners and joy from another flawless week at an ATP 500 event.

The 24-year-old beat World No. 10 Daniil Medvedev 7-6(6), 7-6(4) for his second ATP 500 title of the season in Washington, D.C. Kyrgios won the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC in Acapulco in March (d. Zverev) and has now won six ATP Tour titles, including three at the ATP 500 level (Tokyo 2016).

“This has honestly been one of my favourite weeks of my life. I’ve made massive strides,” Kyrgios said. “I started becoming friends with the smoothie guy, he knew what smoothie I wanted. I was playing ping pong with some kids before I’m playing. You guys were amazing. It was honestly a week to remember.”

“I’ve had people behind me, backing me, and they never lost faith in me even when I lost faith in myself. This week means a lot. It’s great to get the win, but I’ve proved to myself and the people backing me that I can still produce at the highest level.”

The Aussie mixed up baseline rallies well against Medvedev, slicing and bringing the 6’6” Russian to net with drop shots. But Kyrgios’ serve was the story as he never faced a break point and hit 18 aces, including two to close out the final. Kyrgios finished with 110 aces through six matches.

He improved to 5-1 against Top 10 players in 2019, a winning percentage of 83, best on the ATP Tour this year. World No. 1 Novak Djokovic has won seven of his nine matches against Top 10 players this season (7/9, 78%).

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Kyrgios, No. 52, will receive 500 ATP Rankings points and is projected to return to the Top 30 on Monday when the new standings are released. He also will receive $365,390 in prize money.

“We all know how well Nick can play when he wants to. This week he wanted to play, and he was tough,” Medvedev said.

The Russian lost only one service point before the first-set tie-break and had the set on his racquet at 5/4. But Kyrgios stole the tie-break, saving a set point at 5/6 and gaining his third mini-break to take the opener.

After the first set, the Aussie took a medical time-out, which seemed to solve the back spasms that had him stretching on court during changeovers. But he still couldn’t break through on Medvedev’s serve. The Russian won 80 per cent of his service points for the match (55/69). He will receive 300 ATP Rankings points and $183,780 in prize money.

In the tie-break, Kyrgios was again the steadier of the two, jumping ahead by a mini-break at 5/3 when Medvedev lifted a forehand long, and the Aussie continued his match-point Washington tradition. For the third match in a row, before serving on match point, he leaned over the court side wall and asked a fan for advice on where he should hit his serve. Kyrgios then delivered another ace out wide in the Deuce Court.

Did You Know?
The Citi Open sold out seven of 11 sessions, including one of the qualifying rounds. This was the tournament’s first edition under the management of entrepreneur Mark Ein. “We shattered every attendance record ever for this event. We beat the all-time ticket revenue on Tuesday night,” Ein said.

It was four days of shock and awe.

Five years ago, at the 2014 Rogers Cup in Toronto, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga produced tennis that equaled or exceeded the best of his career. The Frenchman, then 29, claimed four Top 10 scalps over four consecutive days to win his second – and most recent – ATP Masters 1000 title.

One by one, World No. 1 Novak Djokovic, No. 9 Andy Murray, No. 8 Grigor Dimitrov and No. 3 Roger Federer fell victim to the rampaging Tsonga.

Although Tsonga returns to the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Montreal next week rather than Toronto, memories of his dramatic run in Canada five years ago will surely give him extra confidence as he looks to continue his steady climb back up the ATP Rankings after his 2018 knee surgery.

“That was amazing for me,” Tsonga said of the title run. “All those guys have given me a hard time in my career. It was tough for me because I came along at the same time as them and they are among the best players in history. To be able to beat them in a row, at one tournament, was a good reward for me.”

Coming into the 2014 Rogers Cup, Tsonga was looking for his first title in almost 18 months (Marseille 2013). His big-tournament lead-in form had been solid – fourth-round defeats to Novak Djokovic at Roland Garros and Wimbledon – but hardly suggestive of what was to come. And it started with a bang against Djokovic, who had won their previous nine matches and 18 sets.

“The win over Djokovic was a little strange because I won 6-2, 6-2. It’s never been like that with him. The win over Andy was the most difficult for me. It was a big match with a lot of intensity that was tight in the third. I was very proud to win that because he’s such a fighter. With Roger I played the perfect final. It was amazing.”

TSONGA’S PATH TO THE 2014 ROGERS CUP TITLE

After beginning 2019 at No. 239 in the ATP Rankings, Tsonga had worked his way back inside the Top 70 coming into this week’s Citi Open in Washington, D.C, helped in large part by winning his 17^th title in Montpellier in February.

“That Tsonga's Four Days Of Shock & Awe In Canada was very emotional because it happened quickly. When I came back last September, I told myself I would give myself a lot of time to play good tennis. I was surprised how quickly it came.

“At this stage of my career the most difficult part of the comeback was to be motivated. Motivation is the main thing in tennis. You need to be 100 per cent to be at the top. When you make so many sacrifices and have had so many good results, and you know that it will take time and additional sacrifice to get back to the top, it can be difficult.

“But I was ready to make the sacrifice to get back on court and give my best.”

Heading into the Coupe Rogers, Tsonga in 2019 boasts an impressive 23-12 record, which includes a three-set win over World No. 8 Karen Khachanov in Washington.

“I’m feeling really good and just happy to be on court again playing good tennis. Hopefully that can continue through the season. I expect to reach my best level.”

DID YOU KNOW
When Tsonga won his first ATP Masters 1000 title in Paris in 2008, he beat three Top 10 players (Djokovic, Roddick and Nalbandian) and World No. 11 Blake.

When ATP Tour players ‘lace them up’, that is usually in reference to their sneakers before a match. But on Saturday, several stars put on shin guards, hockey jerseys, and grabbed sticks to try their hand at a different sport ahead of the Coupe Rogers in Montreal.

Hubert Hurkacz, Kevin Krawietz, Oliver Marach, Jurgen Melzer, Andreas Mies, Brayden Schnur partnered with members of the Montreal Canadiennes women’s hockey team against current and former NHL players in an exciting game of ball hockey.

“It was fun. Honestly the skills they have, it’s just amazing to see what they could do with a stick and a ball. You feel very untalented next to them. It was a fun experience,” Melzer said. “It wasn’t my first time. I haven’t improved since the last time, unfortunately, but I would do it again.”

The ATP Tour players tried their best to position themselves in front of the net in hopes of scoring on former Montreal Canadien centre Steve Begin, who was playing goalkeeper. But they could not overcome an early deficit, with the NHL stars winning the game 4-2.

“It was crazy. Those guys were amazing. It was really amazing. It was really tough because when we were close to the ball, the guys would just put their stick [and knock it away]. It wasn’t easy, but it was fun,” Hurkacz said. “It’s something different. It’s a lot of fun to do something different apart from tennis.”

Even though the game didn’t go the way of the tennis players, they all wore wide smiles across their faces throughout. Not only did they enjoy competing, but they took time to get to know players from the other team afterwards, learning about their own lives as professional athletes.

“They scored four goals very quickly, so we were happy to score two,” Melzer said. “In the end it’s not about winning, it’s about having fun.”