Nick Kyrgios names the ‘crazy’ match he played at Wimbledon which changed his whole career

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Nick Kyrgios has produced the best Grand Slam tennis of his career at Wimbledon.

Kyrgios reached the Wimbledon final in 2022, where he lost to Novak Djokovic in the only major singles final of his career.

It was also the first Grand Slam tournament where he reached a quarterfinal, with Kyrgios beating Nadal at Wimbledon in 2014.

However, it is actually another match Kyrgios played at Wimbledon that year which he has suggested was the most career changing.

Nick Kyrgios says his match with Richard Gasquet at Wimbledon changed his career

Kyrgios has admitted that he is closing in on retirement recently, and he has not played a match since losing in the first round of the Washington Open in a doubles match with Gael Monfils.

It has been even longer since Kyrgios stepped on a singles court, and he was unable to play at the recent Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) event in Hong Kong either.

Instead, he played as a coach to Richard Gasquet, with Kyrgios also naming another player he would like to coach in the future.

While Kyrgios spent time with Gasquet, spoke in a sit down conversation for the UTS Tour and discussed their previous matches.

This was only a then 19-year-old Kyrgios’ second ever match at Wimbledon, and he was able to take Gasquet to five sets.

However, it appeared that experience would prevail when Gasquet found himself 4-5 0-40 in the deciding set, but that was far from the end of the match.

In total, Kyrgios would save a total of nine match points to beat Gasquet, 3-6 6(4)-7 6-4 7-5 10-8, to complete the ultimate comeback.

During this conversation, both Gasquet and Kyrgios spoke about how pivotal it was for the latter’s career.

Gasquet: He started his career because of me you know. He won against me in Wimbledon and then he beat Nadal after me. Second round I had nine match points. Nine! You remember?

Kyrgios: Yeah, I don’t know how.

Gasquet: F***, incredible.

Kyrgios: But you had a backhand line and I remember one hit the tape.

Gasquet: I missed it.

Kyrgios: Everything changed that Wimbledon.

Gasquet: Yeah, yeah, I changed your life.

Kyrgios: Yeah you did, seriously he did.

Gasquet:…Nine match points, you imagine. First time in my life it happened.

Kyrgios: But this was actually crazy and my life changed after this.

Gasquet: For sure, come on. Everything changed after.

Nick Kyrgios admits that he was left in tears after playing Richard Gasquet

Kyrgios’ win over Gasquet at Wimbledon in 2014 was one of only two times he was able to beat the Frenchman, with the other a convincing win in Marseille.

Gasquet leads the head-to-head with Kyrgios 6-2, with one of his six wins leaving the Australian in tears.

This is something that Kyrgios admitted during this conversation, which came after he played Gasquet for the first time at the Davis Cup and lost in straight sets.

Gasquet: First time we played in Davis Cup.

Kyrgios: Yeah, you destroyed me.

Gasquet: I was top 10, I played him on clay, first time.

Kyrgios: I went to the locker room and I started crying, bro.

Gasquet retired at the French Open earlier this year, and it is unclear as to when Kyrgios could join him.

The seven-time ATP title winner has not entered any official tournaments, but there has been a lot of talk about a ‘Battle of the Sexes’ match between Kyrgios and Aryna Sabalenka.