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Nick Kyrgios is proving to be Novak Djokovic's nemesis on tour this year, again beating the former world number one in straight sets at Indian Wells.
Kyrgios triumphed 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) in 110 minutes, with his sizzling serve again coming to the fore as it did in Acapulco.
Back then, Kyrgios hammered 25 aces past Djokovic in the Mexican Open quarter-finals, and while he didn't quite match that serving peak in California, he still out-aced the Serb 14-3 to progress to reach the last eight.
Such was the serving dominance that Kyrgios did not concede a deuce point on his own service until the 10th game of the second set.
In a battling second set, Kyrgios couldn't capitalise on scant opportunities to break Djokovic's serve, but he outfought the Serb to win the tie-break 7/3 to power into the quarter-finals.
The high-profile match-ups keep on coming for Kyrgios, who will next face Australian Open champion Roger Federer, who beat Rafael Nadal 6-2, 6-3.
Federer needed just 68 minutes to beat his old rival, who he also defeated in the decider at Rod Laver Arena in January, setting up another super test for Kyrgios.
Kyrgios's defeat of Djokovic saw the Serb's 19-match winning streak at Indian Wells come to an end, also killing off his bid for a fourth consecutive title at the ATP event.
The 15th-seeded Kyrgios clocked his fastest serve at 227 kph, and won 86 per cent of his first serve points.
Joining Kyrgios in the quarter-finals were number four seed Kei Nishikori, who defeated Donald Young 6-2, 6-4; number 21 Pablo Carreno Busta who beat qualifier Dusan Lajovic; and number 27 Pablo Cuevas, who outlasted 11th-seeded David Goffin 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
On the women's side, number 8 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova beat 19th-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3, 6-2 to reach the semi-finals.
ABC/AP
Topics: tennis, sport, united-states
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