Kyrgios
Tennis - International Premier Tennis League - Singapore Indoor Stadium, Singapore - 20/12/15 International Premier Tennis League Final Men's Singles - Singapore Slammers' Stan Wawrinka hi-fives Nick Kyrgios Reuters/Jeremy Lee

Nick Kyrgios and Stan Wawrinka will relive their rivalry in the semifinal round of the Dubai Tennis Championships in the UAE. The two will battle each other for the first time since the Aussie’s on-court sledge at the Swiss last year at the Montreal Masters.

Kyrgios, who is arguably playing the best tennis of his young career, pulled off a stunning victory over third seed Tomas Berdych 6-4 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the tournament, despite battling a back problem and food poisoning. The 20-year-old Canberran fired 10 aces and saved the four break points he faced to outclass the Czech in a match that lasted 87 minutes.

“I was really surprised with the performance I gave out there today to come out there and beat a quality player and in tough conditions,” Kyrgios said, reports the ATP’s official website. It's probably my favourite win over the past couple of weeks.”

Kyrgios had lost to Berdych in the opening round of the Australian Open, but came back defeating the world No. 7 in the semifinals at Open 13 last week en route to the Aussie teen bad boy’s maiden ATP World Tour title. However, Kyrgios’ impressive run will be put to test against Wawrinka, who defeated Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-5 6-1 to book his place in the last four.

Wawrinka is tied with Kyrgios by 1-1 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head matchup, but it was the Aussie who has the upper hand after defeating the Swiss in the opening round of the ATP Masters Canada last year.

Meanwhile, Wawrinka admitted he is not friends with Kyrgios, but insisted there was nothing else going on between the two from last year’s controversial incident.

“People will talk about the match, a lot about the match tomorrow, a lot more than normally because of what’s happened last year,” Wawrinka said, reports The National. “But from my side there is nothing that I still have from last year. I’m just going to go on the court, try to play my best tennis and try to beat him.”

Live streaming info and score updates

Watch the Dubai Tennis Championships 2016 live via ATP’s official website or TennisTV. Live scores for matches will be available on game days via ATP's official website.

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