Kokkinakis then steadied himself,but it was too late,as Kyrgios continued to prove unbeatable on his serve,hitting aces or serves big enough to set up winners off both wings. Even when Kokkinakis managed to pressure him with deeper returns of serve,Kyrgios showed off superior footwork,constantly re-setting himself to drive the ball back just as deep and with more spin and pace.

The Wimbledon finalist closed out the second set by drilling a forehand winner. The match was just over an hour old but Kyrgios started the third set with a shot that declared he had no intention of slowing down,an inside out backhand winner off a first serve. Still,Kokkinakis continued to fight,holding serve throughout the set even though he rarely seemed a threat to break Kyrgios and climb back into the match.

On the first point of the eighth game,Kyrgios pulled out a crowd-pleasing tweener on a beautiful lob from Kokkinakis - it was not one of his best but Kokkinakis misplayed it and Kyrgios followed with an ace and three service winners. As if to say,“Wait,I’m still here,” Kokkinakis ended his next service game with three consecutive aces for a 5-4 lead.

The powerhouse duo would finish the match with 27 total (14 for Kokkinakis) and nearly half of all serves went unreturned. But Kyrgios never faced a break point and cashed in two of his five opportunities.

“We know each other’s games like the back of our hand,” Kyrgios said after,noting that they’d been playing each other or as doubles partners since they were nine years old. “I had a clear game plan to move him as much as I could and not let him dictate. I took a bit off my first serves to get them in and spread the court when I could and I wanted to change directions during rallies when I could.”

The friends marched into a third set tiebreaker,one ace answering another. At that point,some in the remaining crowd started loudly cheering “Let’s go TK” in the hopes of willing a fourth set into existence. But in the one long rally of the tiebreaker,Kokkinakis got over eager to finish it and missed an attempt at a forehand winner. Kyrgios smashed an overhead winner that bounced into the stands to earn match point and then slammed the door shut with a service winner.

“We never want to play each other again,” Kyrgios said. “I can’t wait to get out there and play with him on the right side of the net in doubles in a few days.”

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