Nick Kyrgios cruised to a 6-4, 6-2 victory over sixth seed Pablo Carreno Busta on Friday at the Terra Wortmann Open in Halle, advancing to his third tour-level semi-final of 2022. Throughout the one-hour, nine-minute match on OWL Arena, the Australian hit the ball with confidence, hitting 37 winners, including 13 aces, to increase his ATP Head2Head series lead over Carreno Busta to 3-0. Kyrgios is now ranked No. 45 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings as a result of his victory. If he wins his eighth ATP Tour trophy at the ATP 500 event, the Australian may climb as high as No. 30. Since March 2021, the 26-year-old has not been in the top 50 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.
From the start, Kyrgios was virtually impenetrable on serve against Carreno Busta. The World No. 65 won the first 12 points on serve and only dropped seven points on service in the entire match, leaving the Spaniard with little room to manoeuvre. The pressure finally got to Carreno Busta in the fifth game, as Kyrgios broke to love and went on to win the first set. Early in the second set, the Australian took possession of the match with a quick break because to his inventive and tenacious ballstriking. Carreno Busta struggled to generate much momentum in his return games, although displaying his customary tenacity in some entertaining rallies that had the OWL Arena crowd on their feet. It wasn't enough to stop Kyrgios, who broke for the 15th time this year on his way to his 15th tour-level victory. Kyrgios will play Felix Auger-Aliassime or Hubert Hurkacz in the semi-finals on Saturday, aiming for his first tour-level championship match appearance of the season.