Aussie Nick Kyrgios is the Australian Open boys\u2019 champion for 2013.<\/p>\n
The 17-year-old from the ACT took down fellow countryman and close friend Thanasi Kokkinakis in the final to claim the title, winning 7-6(4) 6-3 on Rod Laver Arena.<\/p>\n
No better script could have been written for the highly anticipated final, with two Australians battling it out on Australia\u2019s most prestigious court on the country\u2019s national day.<\/p>\n
But in the end it was Kyrgios who did the celebrating, claiming his first singles Grand Slam championship and wrapping up a stellar tournament where he didn\u2019t drop a single set.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously I\u2019m really happy with that performance today, I knew that I had to play some really good tennis,\u201d Kyrgios said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m pretty stoked with the last two weeks I\u2019ve had winning the lead-up tournament and now the Australian Open.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was obviously a great experience being out there knowing that Federer and Murray were grinding it out the night before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kyrgios now finds himself in esteemed company alongside Bernard Tomic, Andy Roddick, Janko Tipsarevic and Marcos Baghdatis, all who have won an Australian Open boys\u2019 title in recent years.<\/p>\n
It was a particularly sour loss for Kokkinakis who had scans the night before the final revealing a stress fracture in the left side of his back. The 16-year-old suffered a similar injury in the right side in 2011 which sidelined him for seven months.<\/p>\n
But, despite almost not even making it out on the court, the South Australian fought gallantly and said behind his immediate disappointment lies much pride in his recent form.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo make it through the final of junior Australian Open \u2026 was a good feeling for me,\u201d Kokkinakis said after the match, reflecting on his past month.<\/p>\n
Kokkinakis has had a dream month, called into the Hopman Cup as an injury replacement and then just missing qualifying for the men\u2019s draw at Melbourne Park with a 17-15 defeat in the third set to American Steve Johnson.<\/p>\n
He had never previously won a match at a junior Grand Slam before his impressive performance here.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a bit of a shame especially hearing the news last night, because it\u2019s been like the best month I\u2019ve had in my career as a stretch.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 54-minute opening set alone lasted longer than any of Kyrgios\u2019 previous matches, and the third seed held on with the help of his booming first serve.<\/p>\n
Kyrgios fought off three set points \u2013 twice saving himself via unreturnable serves \u2013 and with the scores locked at 6-6 he raced to a 5-1 lead in the tiebreak.<\/p>\n
Kokkinakis, whose movement was clearly hampered for much of the match, fought back to 5-4 but Kyrgios held strong, reeling of the next two points to grab the opener.<\/p>\n
A punishing backhand winner down the line from Kyrgios opened up a break point at 2-1 in the second set and the junior world No.1 capitalised, taking a 3-1 lead.<\/p>\n
Kokkinakis kept fighting but it was the pinpoint ball placement of his opponent that proved too strong, Kyrgios closing the second 6-3 on his way to his first Grand Slam championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to take a lot of confidence out of this,\u201d Kyrgios said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a long journey, anything can happen, but right now I\u2019m really happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The victory makes Kyrgios the fourth Australian to win the boys\u2019 title since 2007.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Aussie Nick Kyrgios is the Australian Open boys\u2019 champion for 2013. The 17-year-old from the ACT took down fellow countryman and close friend Thanasi Kokkinakis in the final to claim the title, winning 7-6(4) 6-3 on Rod Laver Arena. No better script could have been written for the highly anticipated final, with two Australians battling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5910,"featured_media":4886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5910"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}