Nick Kyrgios is the fresh, bright, animated face of Australia's tennis future, but an electrifying Australian Open comeback against Italian Andreas Seppi has also ensured that, for the first time since Lleyton Hewitt reached the final back in 2005, the host nation's presence will extend past the fourth round.
Kyrgios recorded his second career comeback from a two-sets-to-love deficit to reach his second quarter-final from his past three grand slam attempts. The first came so unexpectedly at Wimbledon; this one, after an injury-plagued build-up, has come under fierce and not always complimentary scrutiny at home.
But the Canberra teenager loves a show, and this was another to remember, finishing 5-7, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5), 8-6 in three hours and 34 minutes. On a day when his 22-year-old countryman Bernard Tomic became the ninth of 10 Australian men to make a first week exit, Kyrgios was left alone again, but with some exalted company in the last eight, including former champions Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka.
Not since Roger Federer — who was eliminated by Seppi in the previous round — has a teenager reached two grand slam finals. But it is not just how far and fast Kyrgios has come, but how he has got there that is so exciting.
Kyrgios said he had drawn on the experiencing of recovering from a near-fatal deficit against Richard Gasquet at Wimbledon, one that required him to save nine match points. He earned his first just over an hour after saving one with a good first serve, in a potentially dire situation late in the fourth.
"I didn't think I was going to come back and win that match, I was just going to hang in there," he said. "I don't think it's sunk in yet. When I saw I had finally won the match it was incredible. It was the best feeling I ever had, to know the body could come back from two sets to love, knowing I haven't had matches, it's just massive confidence."
Compared with his fourth-round Wimbledon defeat of world No.1 Rafael Nadal last year, Kyrgios said this one "feels a bit better, honestly".
"There was a lot of expectation coming into this tournament. I was obviously out for a couple weeks before Sydney. I wasn't expecting, you know, anything, especially not quarter-finals. And, yeah, it's just massive, especially to do it in front of your home crowd."
He had led 4-1 in the fifth set and appeared to be headed for victory, only for Seppi to claim 12 consecutive points and level at 4-4. But if any celebration was premature, it came eventually, and ecstatically, after a disputed final point, but one that Seppi clearly sent wide.
As the guessing game continued over the reasons behind the unusual scheduling decisions that have seen neither of the two leading young Australians make an appearance on Rod Laver Arena during the Open's first week, Kyrgios has now booked himself a debut match on the 15,000-seat stadium court.
On what is officially now the tournament's No.3 court, albeit the second-largest with 10,000 seats, a resounding roar greeted the last Australian singles hope as he entered a venue open to the excitable-groundpass-holding hoi polloi rather than just the ticketed elites, and thus theorised to be a good fit for the teenager with the moshpit mentality and NBA strut.
But it was his movement that appeared to be troubling him, along with a slightly negative and distracted mood, as he spent energy arguing with the umpire, and himself, and threatened a racquet that finally came to grief — and earned him a code violation — at the end of a 44-minute first set.
More angst came early in the second set. Kyrgios had three break chances in the fourth game but also, after a netted backhand, could be heard to shout: "I'm trying, man. I can't walk, though." Next point he scrambled to and fro, then scorched a backhand crosscourt winner. He is nothing if not can't-tear-your-eyes-away watchable.
It was an early break to Kyrgios in the third set that signalled a major shift of momentum, Seppi lapsing into repeated error, the Australian finding his missing mojo, and the match coming alive again.
This time, it was an energised Kyrgios who produced the magic, notably two backhand winners down the line, the second on set-point. As the crowd willed him into a decider, Kyrgios knew what he had done at Wimbledon and willed himself to do it again. A second grand slam quarter-final is here. The tournament is alight.
