Stat of the Day: Nick Kyrgios has now held 79 of his last 80 service games

The resurgence of Nick Kyrgios has been one of the biggest stories of the year in tennis, and one of the biggest factors in that resurgence has been his serve—he’s always been one of the best servers in the game, and he’s caught fire once again.

In fact, until midway through his opening match in Montreal today, when he was already up a double break at 5-2 in the first set, Kyrgios had held serve an incredible 73 times in a row, a stretch that dated back to the start of the fourth set of the Wimbledon final (since being broken by Novak Djokovic in his last service game of the third set).

Sebastian Baez finally snapped the streak in Montreal by breaking Kyrgios at love to catch up to 5-3 in the first set, then he held to make it 5-4—but Kyrgios held his last six service games en route to a 6-4, 6-4 victory over the Argentine.

NICK KYRGIOS’ 73-GAME SERVING STREAK: A BREAKDOWN
~ held last 6 service games in F of Wimbledon (l. to Djokovic, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (3))
~ held 9 of 9 service games in 1st Rd of Washington, D.C. (d. Giron, 6-3, 6-2)
~ held 9 of 9 service games in 2nd Rd of Washington, D.C. (d. Paul, 6-3, 6-4)
~ held 10 of 10 service games in 3rd Rd of Washington, D.C. (d. Opelka, 7-6 (1), 6-2)
~ held 16 of 16 service games in QFs of Washington, D.C. (d. Tiafoe, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (12), 6-2)
~ held 11 of 11 service games in SFs of Washington, D.C. (d. Ymer, 7-6 (4), 6-3)
~ held 9 of 9 service games in F of Washington, D.C. (d. Nishioka, 6-4, 6-3)
~ held first 3 service games in 1st Rd of Montreal (until 5-2 against Baez)

Awaiting Kyrgios in the second round in Montreal will be one of the best returners in the game, and someone else who’s on a hot streak: Daniil Medvedev. Like Kyrgios, Medvedev won an ATP title last week—the Russian won in Los Cabos, Mexico—so the two playing each other a few days later is arguably the toughest draw of the week.

Kyrgios has a 2-1 head-to-head record against Medvedev, winning their first two meetings in 2019 (6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in the first round of Rome and 7-6 (6), 7-6 (4) in the final of Washington, D.C.) but falling to the Russian in the second round of the Australian Open this year in a tough four-setter, 7-6 (1), 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.

The Australian will be going for his second career win over a reigning No. 1, his first coming against Rafael Nadal in the fourth round of Wimbledon in 2014.