Andy Murray beats petulant Nick Kyrgios to reach Stuttgart Open final

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After a first win over a top-five opponent in five-and-a-half years yesterday, what can Andy Murray serve up today against close friend Nick Kyrgios?

Whatever the outcome in today’s semi-final, you can be sure Murray will be taking plenty of encouragement from this week’s Stuttgart Open going into his main target of Wimbledon.

Victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas on Friday was the first time Murray had beaten a ranked player in the world’s five since 2016, when he downed Novak Djokovic at the ATP Finals.

Currently ranked 68 in the world and armed with a metal hip, the 35-year-old defeated the Greek top seed 7-6 (4) 6-3 in one hour and 40 minutes to set up a last-four clash with Australia’s Kyrgios .

Murray said in his on-court interview afterwards: “It was an amazing atmosphere. Almost full crowd. Beautiful weather today, really nice conditions to play tennis. I thought I did well. He served unbelievably in the first set.” I had very few chances, but when he was creating chances on my serve, I stayed strong. I played a really solid tie-break and in the second set, once I was in the rallies, I felt like I was dictating a lot of the points. It was a good performance.”

The result was a sign that Murray is applying his almost unparalleled grass-court nous, and it strengthened his chances of pushing for a Wimbledon seeding with just over a fortnight to go.

But first, a meeting with Kyrgios and the chance to book at place in Sunday’s final.

World number 78 Kyrgios skipped the whole clay-court season but is now also plugged into the grass swing ahead of Wimbledon.

The fiery Australian and Murray are good friends despite their very different characters, and the Scot has won five of their previous six meetings.

Kyrgios said: “I know what to expect but he also is a veteran on the grass and I don’t want to take him lightly at all. I’m just going to go out there, serve big, look after my serve and see what I can do on his return games.”

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