Nick Kyrgios is confident his game is on track for a tilt at Wimbledon after his Queen’s Club campaign ended at the semi-final stage.
Marin Cilic brought Kyrgios’s entertaining run in London to an end on Saturday with a 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-4) victory, the top seed reaching the final at the event for the fourth time.
A high-level showdown full of thundering serves boiled down to two tiebreaks in which the ice-cool Cilic proved the more composed player to set up a Sunday showdown with former world No.1 Novak Djokovic.
Unseeded Djokovic was given some trouble by Jeremy Chardy in the opening set but prevailed 7-6 (7-5) 6-4.
Kyrgios, who beat British pair Andy Murray and Kyle Edmund this week, was satisfied with his work after he followed up a run to the final in Stuttgart last week with one to the last four at Queen’s.
His serving is in a particularly good place as he served 98 aces in his four outings, twice achieving a personal best of 32 in a match.
He was, though, reluctant to consider himself among the favourites at the All England Club.
“I’ve played some good tennis, have played some tough opponents,” he said.
“I played a lot of three-setters and a lot of tennis. That’s a positive. My body feels pretty good.
“It was a pretty successful couple of weeks, obviously given being out for two and a half months before that.
“I feel confident for Wimbledon, for sure. There’s a lot of grass court players.
“I mean, the grand slams are totally different. Best-of-five sets – there’s a lot more momentum swings.
“The last couple of weeks, I feel pretty untouchable on serve. Today I just didn’t have any chances to break at all.”
World No.6 Cilic did not offer up one break point opportunity in their one hour and 25 minute meeting.
“It’s special to play here and I’ve played great tennis throughout the week and it’s great to have another shot at the title,” the 2012 Queen’s champion said.
“Nick is serving so good and it was tough to get a look on the service returns.
“As expected a couple of points made the difference in the tiebreaks.”
Wildcard Djokovic seemed agitated at times as Chardy proved a tricky opponent.
The Frenchman made several errors in the tiebreak though and was broken at 4-4 in the second – the only break of serve in the day’s two semi-finals – before Djokovic sealed the win.
He has a 14-1 winning record over Cilic but might be second-favourite on Sunday with the Croatian in superb form.
“I will play with two racquets! One in the right hand and one in the left hand!” Djokovic said when asked how he would cope with the power of Cilic’s serve.