Australian star Nick Kyrgios has expressed pride in his own performance on Thursday night, despite a four-set loss to Daniil Medvedev in the second round of the Australian Open.
The No.2 seed took the first two sets but never looked too far ahead of the Australian, before Kyrgios was able to rally back and claim the third set.
Unfortunately for the fans in Rod Laver Arena, Kyrgios' surge was put to bed rather quickly by Medvedev, who claimed the fourth set in dominant fashion and the match finished 7-6 6-4 4-6 6-2 in favour of the Russian.
Speaking to the media after the match, the 26-year-old said he was proud of his efforts and believes he would have beaten most players in the tournament if he played as well as he did.
“If I play 95 per cent of people tonight on that court I think I win, to be honest with you,” Kyrgios said.
“I think if you asked everyone on tour...I think they would probably vote him (Medvedev) the best player in the world at the moment.
“His consistency - he doesn’t drop his level, he shows up every game. I think no matter what the score is or how much pressure he’s under he never kind of gets flustered. He just has so much belief in his game.
“He’s just so confident right now. To be honest, I threw everything I could at him. I thought I served consistently 220km/h for three-and-a-half hours almost, and played pretty well from the back, created plenty of opportunities on return games.
“I’m super proud of my performance today. From where I was with my struggles the last four, five months, to be feeling like this and, obviously had COVID a couple of days before - I’m just proud of the way I responded.”
Kyrgios was struck down by the virus just over a week out from his first-round Australian Open clash, but was able to recover in time to compete in two highly-entertaining matches.
His performance against Medvedev of course didn't come without some controversy however.
Kyrgios was involved in a couple of exchanges with the chair umpire earlier in the match, before Medvedev accused the raucous Melbourne crowd of being 'disrespectful' in a post-game interview.
