The All England Tennis Championships are set for a brilliant final round as six-time winner and defending champion Novak Djokovic is all set to face first-time Grand Slam finalist Nick Kyrgios.
The maverick Australian is in his first Slam final at the age of 27 after a roller-coaster career.
While Kyrgios advanced to the big clash without stepping foot on court in the semi-final contest as a result of two-time winner Rafael Nadal's withdrawal from the tournament on account of an injury he sustained in his quarter-final game against Taylor Fritz.
With the Spaniard's withdrawal, unseeded 27-year-old Kyrgios became the first Australian to reach the men's singles final at the All England Club since Mark Philippoussis in 2003.
The Australian has shown his good, bad and ugly sides during the tournament and been fined a total of $14,000 for two offences -- spitting towards a fan after his first-round win and swearing in a fiery third-round clash with Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Kyrgios has the advantage over Djokovic in terms of head-to-head statistics. The Australian has faced the Serb twice before, coming out on top on both occasions.
The feisty Australian started his campaign with a five-set first-round Wimbledon thriller against Paul Jubb on Tuesday as his fearsome serve, including 30 aces, eventually overpowered the 22 year old 3-6, 6-1, 7-5, 6-7(3), 7-5.
It was an unexpectedly testing examination for Kyrgios as the outsider kept his cool in the face of the Australian's usual verbal antics, but fell just short.
Kyrgios delivered a devastating serving masterclass in his second round match as he blasted past 31st ranked Serb Filip Krajinovic 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 in 85 minutes without breaking sweat.
There were none of the chuntering umpire complaints or run-ins with fans that were a feature of his first-round match -- Kyrgios barely had time -- as he pounded down 24 aces, with only one double fault overall. He took the first set without dropping a point before many fans had even taken their seats.
Kyrgios knocked out fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in a wild and wonderful Wimbledon third round slugfest that threatened to spiral out of control.
Kyrgios produced sublime tennis to earn a 6-7(2), 6-4, 6-3, 7-6(7) victory, but the match will be remembered for being one of the most bad-tempered seen at Wimbledon since the days of American bad boy John McEnroe.
With the lights on and a deafening atmosphere it was unseeded Kyrgios who emerged from the chaos with one of his finest Grand Slam victories, edging a nerve-jangling fourth set tie-break after saving a set point.
Kyrgios reached his first Grand Slam quarter-final in seven years when he recovered from a slow start to beat steady American Brandon Nakashima in five sets on Wimbledon's Centre Court.
The brash Australian was on his best behaviour in front of the Royal Box as he ground out a 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-2 win. He let his tennis do the talking against the 20-year-old Nakashima, barely uttering a word in anger throughout a contest that contained few of the fireworks usually associated with him.
Kyrgios reached the first Grand Slam semi-final of his chequered career with a comfortable 6-4, 6-3, 7-6(5) victory over Cristian Garin.
He lost the opening nine points on Court One, but ultimately had too much firepower for Garin who had hoped to become Chile's first Wimbledon semi-finalist.
In surpassing his previous best Wimbledon run to the quarter-finals eight years ago, Kyrgios becomes the first Australian to reach a Grand Slam semi-final since Lleyton Hewitt at the 2005 US Open.
On the eve of the match, Kyrgios was summoned to appear in a Canberra court next month on an alleged common assault charge, hardly ideal preparation for one of his biggest matches.
But any off-court distractions he put to one side in a relatively low-volume display sprinkled occasionally with the instinctive shot-making that makes him such a draw.
As in his five-set win over Brandon Nakashima in the previous round, Kyrgios kept his volatile temperament under wraps, although he regularly lambasted his sizeable entourage as the match dragged on, calling for more support.
