Rafael Nadal and Daniil Medvedev sent Nick Kyrgios ‘explosive’ warning ahead of US Open

With no Novak Djokovic in the men’s singles draw owing to Covid-19 vaccination rules, Rafael Nadal and Daniil Medvedev will enter US Open 2022 at the top favourites. Nadal, who is returning to the Flushing Meadows for the first time since his 2019 win, is a four-time title winner at the Open while Medvedev is the defending champion, having defeat Djokovic by straight sets last year. But tennis expert Alex Corretja has sent a massive Nick Kyrgios warning to the two favourites, that the the Aussie will be in “dangerous” form in the competition.

Kyrgios has been in great touch in this summer having reached his maiden Grand Slam final at Wimbledon before scripting a nine-match winning streak en route to a title in Washington and a quarterfinal show in Montreal. However, he suffered an early round-two exit in Cincinnati. But his impressive run made him a seeded player at the US Open for the first time in his career.

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Corretja, in conversation with Eurosport, had only one word to describe what he expects from Kyrgios at the US Open – “Explosive!”

“We’re going to see probably the best Kyrgios that we have ever seen because he’s got experience from Wimbledon. He’s got experience from the summertime, where he’s been playing very, very well. Of course, I think he ran a little bit out of gas at the last tournament, but he had time to recover and he’s going to be at the US Open super well. So I think Nick is going to be very dangerous to play against him. I said already that before, at Wimbledon, and I’m lucky enough that he reached the final, not lucky but lucky that I said that,” he added.

Kyrgios does not have a very good record at the US Open, having never gone past the third round in his career. But Corretja believes that the Aussie will have the crowd behind him when he takes the court in New York.

“For the US Open, you need to think about Kyrgios, of course,” said Corretja. “He knows already that he can play long matches. He knows how to deal with situations.

“He knows that maybe he doesn’t need to play for the full four hours of his best tennis, maybe he can go up and down a little bit and that’s enough to win matches.

“The crowd in New York will love him. I mean, for sure, because he’s the perfect type of player to play in New York. And New York is show. New York is all about everything.

“It’s huge and Nick suits perfect to that ambience and to that crowd. So I think he could be easily one of the home crowd favourites.”