Nick Kyrgios demonstrated why he is one of the most exciting talents in men's tennis after the Australian clinched a thrilling and hard-fought win over Greece's world No 6 Stefanos Tsitsipas in the ATP Cup on Tuesday.
ATP Finals champion Tsitsipas was on a roll after thrashing Alexander Zverev on Monday, but met his match in the temperamental Kyrgios, who was on his best behaviour during the high-quality 7-6 , 6-7, 7-6 win.
"It was exhausting but a lot of fun. I knew it was going to be very tough, he's an amazing player and so young and is going to do some special things in this sport," said Kyrgios, who missed his last match with a sore back.
"I'm just glad we got the win. There was a lot of respect out there. He's a good player, a good kid."
Australia took the tie in Brisbane, with John Millman winning the other singles against Greece's Michail Pervolarakis 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 as the hosts extended their perfect record at the tournament to 9-0.
Over in Perth, world No 5 Daniil Medvedev ended Casper Ruud's giant-killing spree with a 6-3, 7-6 victory to seal Russia's place in the quarter-finals.
Last year's US Open finalist is in ominous form ahead of the Australian Open, wrapping up his match against the Norwegian in one hour and 33 minutes.
"Maybe the score doesn't say everything about the match because it was really close and both of us could have won," Medvedev said.
As winners of Group D Russia advance to the knockout stages in Sydney, while Norway's surprising run, which started with a stunning upset of the United States, comes to an end.
Ruud stunned Italian world No 12 Fabio Fognini on Sunday after beating American John Isner, ranked 19, two days earlier.
In the earlier singles, Karen Khachanov easily beat world No 329 Viktor Durasovic 6-2, 6-1. He broke twice in a lopsided first set and maintained that pressure in the second to preserve his unbeaten start to the season.
"Happy to start like this and I think match by match I'm playing better," said Khachanov, who defeated Italy's Stefano Travaglia and American Taylor Fritz earlier in the tournament.
Britain's Dan Evans kept up his impressive form with a 6-2, 6-2 thrashing of Moldova's Radu Albot in Sydney, with his captain Tim Henman calling the world No 42 "world class".
Evans scored the biggest victory of his career in beating Belgium's world No 11 David Goffin on Sunday and backed that up with a faultless performance against an opponent ranked four places below him.
Henman's team have won two and lost one in Group C and have done enough to top the group and reach the quarter-finals. They will face Australia in the quarter-finals.
"I would say my concern for the Evans match was how he would respond after putting in such a good performance against Goffin. It's not always easy to back that up," said Henman. "He was world class again."
Cameron Norrie won his singles clash with Alexander Cozbinov 6-2, 6-2 before Jamie Murray and Joe Salisbury dismissed Albot and Cozbinov 6-2, 6-3 in doubles to seal the tie 3-0.
Alexander Zverev's terrible run of form showed no signs of abating after the German surrendered to Canada's Denis Shapovalov 6-2, 6-2.
Canada won the tie in Brisbane 2-1 after Shapovalov teamed with Felix Auger-Aliassime to win the deciding doubles rubber.
Shapovalov cruised to his win in just 70 minutes to level the tie after Jan-Lennard Struff had got Germany away to a winning start with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Auger-Aliassime.
"Generally I'm not playing good, so there's a lot of things that I still need to improve, but it's the start of the season," Zverev said after suffering a third straight loss.
With Germany eliminated, there is no chance for Zverev to get any more match practice before the Australian Open, with the German confirming he would not ask for entry into any of the lead-up tournaments next week.
