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Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios has continued his blazing run with victory over world No.1 Daniil Medvedev at the Montreal Masters 1000 event.
Nick Kyrgios has scored an emotion-charged comeback win over world No.1 Daniil Medvedev to underline his US Open title credentials and book an intriguing, first-time all-Australian showdown with Alex de Minaur.
The Wimbledon runner-up once again made a mockery of the rankings to wear down Medvedev 6-7 (2-7) 6-4 6-2 in a sapping second-round encounter in Montreal played in searing heat and humidity.
Both in-form stars were coming off title wins last week, with Kyrgios completing an historic singles-double double in Washington and Medvedev reigning in Los Cabos, Mexico.
After losing the opening set in a tiebreaker, Kyrgios dug deep and turned the match around with one incredible backhand passing shot to break Medvedev in the sixth game of the deciding set.
He broke the dispirited Russian for a second straight service game before closing out the match to love after exactly two hours.
The stirring victory was Kyrgios's third from four meetings with Medvedev, his 14th win from 15 matches and second ever over a world No.1 - eight years after conquering Rafael Nadal on his Wimbledon debut as a teenager.
"I'm not the type of player who goes into these matches looking at rankings or anything like that," Kyrgios said after dedicating the win to ailing mother Nill.
"It's just who I'm playing and what kind of ball they're giving me and today I had a very clean objective of how I was going to play - a lot of serve and volley, a lot of aggressive play from the back - and I executed better than he did on the day.
"That's all it came down to ... so hopefully I can keep this rolling.
Unbeaten on the American hardcourt swing, Kyrgios's only defeat in the past six weeks came against Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon decider.
Djokovic won't be in New York for the season's final grand slam starting on August 29, leaving Kyrgios as one the biggest threats to reigning champion Medvedev.
"Look, a grand slam is much, much different to any other tournament," Kyrgios said after ending Medvedev's title defence in Canada.
"If I was in this position of a grand slam, you've still got to win another set and that's not easy at all. He's a machine.
"He's the best player in the world for a reason and at a grand slam he's a totally different beast."
Nevertheless, Kyrgios's US Open hopes continue to skyrocket and the 27-year-old's latest triumph all but secured the Canberran an all-important seeding for Flushing Meadows.
"Look, I feel confident in my body and my mentality going in to the US Open but at the same time there's so much time between then and now," Kyrgios said.
"I've got to focus on this event and then Cincinnati. There's so many things I've got to look forward to. I'm not even going to think about the US Open right now.
"I need to take care of my body."
Kyrgios's mother is in hospital with failing kidneys, prompting the ACT ace to write "be strong, ma" on the camera after his win.
De Minaur, himself in terrific touch after winning his sixth career title two weeks ago in Atlanta, set up a first-time meeting with Kyrgios with a 7-6 (7-4) 7-5 second-round win over Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, the 15th seed.
Kyrgios and de Minaur had been poised to clash in the Wimbledon quarter-finals before de Minaur let slip a two-sets-to-love advantage over Chile's Cristian Garin in the fourth round.
Kyrgios or de Minaur - who play at 5am Friday AEST - will face either Polish eighth seed Hubert Hurkacz or Spanish veteran Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the quarter-finals.
