Iron Man Kyrgios Grinds Down Goffin for ATP Tokyo Title

No. 15-ranked Nick Kyrgios won his third title of the year on Sunday, outlasting David Goffin 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 to raise the trophy at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo.
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“It was tough, we had a lot of long rallies,” said the 21 year old, who saved 11 of the 12 break points against him. “I thought the way I returned today got me a lot of opportunities. It was a high-quality match, but I got lucky at times as well.”

Kyrgios in the third set came back from 4-5, 0-30 down before a fortuitous net cord saw him avoid facing three straight match points on sere.

“The way he was serving, you never know if he might still come back,” said Goffin, who saw Kyrgios erase two love-40 deficits earlier in the match. “It’s not easy to break him, because he was hitting 215 km/h serves on the line. I was trying to guess which way he was going. But he can still ace you. I tried my best, and it worked until 5-4 in the final set.”

Kyrgios said his previous match against the athletic Gael Monfils took a toll.

“It took me a little time to get into this match,” Kyrgios said of losing the first set. “David makes you feel like the court is very small. My serve got me out of trouble today.”

Kyrgios improved to 3-1 in career finals, all his wins this year, while Goffin dropped to 2-4, still looking for his first title since 2014.