Kyrgios Wins #NextGen Match Against Coric

For now at least, Nick Kyrgios holds the upper hand against his fellow #NextGen star Borna Coric. In their first tour-level meeting on Friday, Kyrgios served freely and blasted forehands to breeze past Coric 6-4, 6-4 and move into the semi-finals of the Millennium Estoril Open.

The 21-year-old Aussie hit 10 aces and won 82 per cent of his service points. Kyrgios also never faced a break point in the one-hour and nine-minute match. Coric, meanwhile, had to work to hold the entire contest, erasing six of eight break points faced. Coric, No. 40 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, was trying to go 4-0 in quarter-finals this season but will have to wait until his second meeting with Kyrgios to even their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry.

The two had met twice before on the ITF Junior Circuit, with Krygios winning both contests. Now the World No. 20 advances to his fourth semi-finals of the season, where he’ll face Nicolas Almagro. The Spaniard knocked off No. 7 seed Leonardo Mayer of Argentina 6-4, 7-6(5). “I’m not going to think about it too much,” Kyrgios said of his semi-finals match. “I know what he’s doing to do, and I know what I have to do to win.”

Almagro, a former World No. 9, improved to 4-0 against Mayer, No. 46 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. The 30 year old pressured Mayer’s serve all match, converting three of his 11 break points.

Benoit Paire remained undefeated in ATP World Tour quarter-finals this year. The Frenchman dispatched Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-6(2), 6-2 on Friday. Garcia-Lopez was trying to reach his second consecutive semi-finals, after reaching the final four last week at the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy in Bucharest. Paire, now 4-0 in quarter-finals this year, controlled the match with his first serve, winning almost 80 per cent of those points.

In the semi-finals, Paire will face another Spaniard: Pablo Carreno Busta, who beat No. 1 seed Gilles Simon 6-3, 6-4. The No. 8 seed hit five aces and won 70 per cent of his second-serve points. In the first set, Carreno Busta erased both break points faced and converted his only break point against the World No. 18. During the second set, Carreno Busta didn’t face a break point and broke Simon once more. “He was always able to play the right shot at the right moment,” Simon said.