The crowd’s favorite Nick Kyrgios and the Frenchman Gilles Simon put up a nearly three-hour long battle on Thursday evening in Melbourne. With crowd rooting for Kyrgios for every ace he slammed, the Aussie raised A $5,600 for the Australian relief fund’s casket.

Towards the end of the second set, while Kyrgios was serving at 5-4, he received a time violation warning during his service motion. Right after that, the Australian had a cheeky exchange with the chair umpire.

Nick Kyrgios and Gilles Simon mimick Rafael Nadal

He imitated the service rituals of the Spaniard ace Rafael Nadal. Rafa generally towels his face to the left and right side of his T-shirt, tucks his hair, picks his shorts and then tosses the ball. In a nutshell, Nadal takes a significant amount of time before releasing his serve. And the World Number 26 Nick Kyrgios brought up the same matter by mimicking Rafa during his Thursday’s encounter.

A few minutes later Gilles Simon acted in a similar manner. Upon receiving a time violation warning, the Frenchman asked the chair umpire. “Do you have a date?” Kyrgios shook his head and asked him to continue with his serve. Simon ignored Kyrgios and mimicked picking his shorts, everyone in the stadium including Kyrgios laughed. 

High-quality tennis in Melbourne

In the match, Kyrgios was hanging in there during the long rallies and patiently returned on Simon’s court. In the third-set Nick Kyrgios was leading by a break. However, the Frenchman turned it around and kept the action on-going on the Melbourne Arena. Kyrgios was 4-2 up in the third set, but he dropped four games in a row and drove the match into the fourth set. 

In the fourth set, Kyrgios held the decisive break of serve at 6-5. In that game, he squandered three break points. By converting the fourth one he progressed to serve for the match. Kyrgios swiftly sealed a 6-2, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 win over Gilles Simon at Australian Open 2020 after playing some high-quality tennis.