Wimbledon 2014: Nick Kyrgios - The teenage wildcard who shocked Rafael Nadal

Nick Kyrgios on his way to a famous win against Rafael Nadal

There is no better stage in tennis than the Wimbledon centre court to announce your arrival on the tennis tour. Standing at 6’4”, 19 year old Nick Kyrgios bombed his way serving aces at will to a famous 7-6(5), 5-7, 7-6(5), 6-3 win over World Number 1, Rafael Nadal to set up a quarter-final clash with Milas Raonic, and a potential dream match against Roger Federer in the semis.

"On the big stage, it's something I thrive on," said Kyrgios.

Ranked 144, Kyrgios is the first man outside the top 100 to beat a world number one at a Grand Slam since 1992 and also the first teenager to beat a world number one since Rafael Nadal himself did it in 2005 beating Roger Federer at the French Open. Before this, his only win against a top 50 player was against Richard Gasquet in the second round where he saved 9 match points before beating him in 5 sets and followed that up with an impressive win in third round against Jiri Vesely.

Kyrgios came out with a game plan and executed it to perfection. He clearly had Nadal rattled since the beginning with Nadal not managing to win a single point of Kyrgios’s first serve in the entire first set which Kyrgios eventually won 7-5 in the tiebreak.

Maybe Kyrgios was just not thinking and played with nothing to lose from the word go as he hammered down 37 aces during the entire duration of the match and was broken only once by Nadal at the end of the 2nd set. Nadal clearly mentioned at his post-match press conference that he struggled to read his opponents serve.

Kyrgios was so confident in what he was doing that at one point John McEnroe even said: "He absolutely believed that he was going to win this match and he is acting to me like he could win this tournament.” McEnroe even drew comparisons with the great Boris Becker when he said “"The last guy I saw like that was Boris Becker, a young teenager with no fear whatsoever who just believed 'no matter what comes my way, I am going to be better than them'.”

Nadal levelled the match in the second set and clearly started the stronger in third drawing his years of experience. But Kyrgios recovered from a slight blemish and ended up taking the 3rd in a tie breaker 7 points to 5. And when he broke serve early on in the fourth set with two heavy backhands, there was clearly no way back for Nadal. Some might have expected the nerves to take the better of the wildcard while serving for the match, he showed tremendous composure as he hit his 37th ace of the match to notch up a famous win.

Australia certainly have a player in their ranks who is one is a fantastic talent and a future tennis star to look out for. Things can only get better for him from here on provided he keeps doing the right things.