Nick Kyrgios has moved on from his run-in with the Acapulco crowd to earn a quarter-final shot at 12-time grand slam champion Novak Djokovic.
Kyrgios made light work of Bernard Tomic’s first-round conqueror, needing just 72 minutes to breeze past Donald Young 6-2 6-4 to advance to his second ATP quarter in as many weeks.
Djokovic progressed with a hard-earned 4-6 6-4 6-4 victory over Juan Martin del Potro, the top seed’s comeback win some consolation for his loss to the Argentine at last year’s Rio Olympics.
Having already conquered Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka, 21-year-old Kyrgios is chasing his last scalp to complete a rare sweep of tennis’s Big 5.
“I think my top-10 record’s pretty good. I think I play well against the top-10 players,” said Kyrgios, a semi-finalist last week in his title defence in Marseilles.
“I’ve beaten nearly all of them, except for maybe Novak and (Japan’s Kei) Nishikori. So I feel comfortable playing those guys.
“This is why you play the game. You play the game to verse these players on big courts and it’s something you dream of as a little kid.”
World No.17 Kyrgios was seldom troubled against Young.
Young, ranked 63rd in the world, progressed when Tomic withdrew from their first-round clash after the opening set, with the Australian citing “unbearable heat” in 27-degree temperatures the previous day.
Kyrgios beat veteran Israeli Dudi Sela in three sets on Tuesday, drawing some negative attention when he told a spectator to “shut the f— up”.
But the incident had apparently not fazed Kyrgios, who took to Twitter to laugh off calls for an apology.
“I’m really trying to concentrate every day now on just trying to put in a good performance, win or lose, just trying to give my best efforts,” he said.
Davis Cup teammate Jordan Thompson was unable to join Kyrgios in the quarter-finals, falling 6-4 3-6 6-0 to Yoshihito Nishioka.
Nishioka will play second seed Rafael Nadal, who crushed Paolo Lorenzi 6-1 6-1.
Sam Querrey upset fifth seed David Goffin 6-2 6-3 and will play defending champion Dominic Thiem – a 7-5 6-3 winner over Adrian Mannarino – for a place in the semi-finals.
