Nick Kyrgios beat Cristian Garin in straight sets in the Wimbledon quarter-finals to reach the last four of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career.
Kyrgios had been embroiled in controversy for much of his run to the last eight at the All England Club, but the Australian produced a mature and measured performance to defeat his Chilean opponent 6-4 6-3 7-6 (7-5) on No 1 Court and set up a semi-final meeting with Rafael Nadal.
Having been regularly accused of wasting his immense talent, Kyrgios was playing in a Grand Slam quarter-final for the first time the 2015 Australian Open, and it was his first time back in the last eight at Wimbledon since starring on debut in 2014.
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"I just never thought I'd be at the semi-final of a Grand Slam, I thought my ship had sailed," Kyrgios said after becoming the first Australian man to reach the last four at Wimbledon since Lleyton Hewitt in 2005.
"I maybe should have done things a little different early in my career and maybe wasted that window a bit.
"Just really proud of the way I've come out here and been able to put on a performance."
Kyrgios' hopes of reaching a first Grand Slam final were boosted as his semi-final opponent Nadal had to battle through an abdominal injury to win a five-set thriller against Taylor Fritz, after which he said he "hoped" he would be ready to play the Australian.
Garin broke serve in the opening game of the match, but was twice broken himself in the first set and unable to make inroads on Kyrgios' impressive delivery from that point on, as the Australian saved eight of his opponent's nine break-point chances to close out victory in two hours and 11 minutes.
Kyrgios cut a frustrated figure despite being in control on the scoreboard, but was able to repeatedly bail himself out of trouble with big serving, as his 17 aces played a crucial role in the outcome.
"I felt like I was playing on the back-foot a lot," Kyrgios added. "He's a hell of a player, he's obviously feeling very confident, hell of a tournament from him to make the quarter-finals.
"I felt I was on the back-foot, got lucky on a couple of break points here and there, it could have easily been him standing here, so I'll just take that and prepare for my next match."
Kyrgios maintains control in mature display
Aside from a second-round straight sets victory over No 26 seed Filip Krajinovic, Kyrgios' other three matches at this years championships had all been high in drama.
He overcame Britain's Paul Jubb in a five-set first-round match, after which he was fined for spitting (on the court) in the direction of a spectator. He would go on beat fourth-seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in what will likely end up as the most memorable match of the tournament, an ill-tempered affair that led to the Greek describing Kyrgios as "evil" in his post-match press conference.
Kyrgios let the tennis do the entertaining as he earned his quarter-final place with another five-set win, this time over American youngster Brandon Nakashima.
It was another relatively calm display on Wednesday, but this time his tennis ensured the theatre was kept to a minimum.
After losing the first nine points of the match, he composed himself to break back for 3-3, and then it was his Chilean opponent, playing in a Grand Slam quarter-final for the first time, who wilted under pressure.
Serving to stay in the opening set at 4-5, Garin produced four consecutive unforced errors to gift Kyrgios the opener.
The Australian held onto that momentum to break early in second set, and then snuffed out his opponent's attempts to break back to take full control.
The No 1 Court crowd attempted to lift Garin in the third, and the Chilean responded as he repeatedly held serve with ease and applied near-constant pressure on Kyrgios' delivery, but he couldn't do more than force a tie-break.
A nervous start saw two mini-breaks each exchanged, but the decisive moments came as Kyrgios stepped up to serve at 4-5. The Australian twice came to the net, with Garin missing chances to pass him on both occasions.
That brought up a first match point for Kyrgios, which he took as Garin miscued a backhand, before falling to the floor and soaking up the moment.
Kyrgios: Assault allegations didn't really affect me
Kyrgios said after the match that allegations of common assault on a former girlfriend, which surfaced on the eve of his quarter-final, did not "really affect" his performance.
Local police confirmed the 27-year-old Australian was to appear in a Canberra court next month.
"Obviously I have a lot of thoughts, a lot of things I want to say, kind of my side about it," he said. "I've been advised by my lawyers that I'm unable to say anything at this time.
"Look, I understand everyone wants to kind of ask about it and all that, but I can't give you too much on that right now."
He did say, however, that it had been hard to read the stories in the build-up to his match, but that he had not let them affect his performance on the court.
"Didn't really affect me at all, to be honest with you," he said. "Obviously seeing it - I'm only human. Obviously everyone else was asking questions. It was hard.
"It was hard to kind of just focus on kind of the mission at hand. It was quarter-finals of Wimbledon today. I know deep down that's what I was prepared for."
A statement from Australian Capital Territory Policing on Tuesday did not identify Kyrgios but The Canberra Times quoted the lawyer of the former world No 13 as saying that the charge was related to a "domestic relationship".
"ACT Policing can confirm a 27-year-old Watson man is scheduled to face the ACT Magistrates court on the 2nd of August in relation to one charge of common assault following an incident in December 2021," the police said.
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