March Madness #11: Kyrgios and Zverev entertain the world

It's madness, I tell you! Fuzzy yellow ball style. Follow along this week for our Top 17 takeaways and outtakes from the 2017 Sunshine Double in California and Florida.

Check out No. 12 here.

The quarterfinal skirmish at the Miami Open between 19-year-old Alexander Zverev and 21-year-old Nick Kyrgios was billed as a look at the future of men's tennis. It certainly proved to be that—a sometimes-brilliant, often-entertaining and yet error-strewn affair. You have to respect two thick-as-thieves guys whose combined age is five years more than Roger Federer's alone who can fist-bump prior to going about their cheeky shotmaking:

The match had it all. Take this brainless Zverev shot in the midst of what became his three-set loss:

Then there was Kyrgios' "reverse" tweener turned forehand winner, a sickening shot by purists' standards but a surefire crowd pleaser—one he would later replicate to a degree in his smashing, three-tiebreak showdown with Federer.

The win over Zverev, and especially the painful yet massively entertaining loss to Federer, ensured that Kyrgios would emerge from this Miami event unscathed from his (honestly fairly lighthearted) reprimand of a young ball boy during a tight, early-round victory over Ivo Karlovic.

Kyrgios will be Kyrgios, of this we can be sure. But even at a mere 21 years, it seems put-up-or-shut-up time for the man who has already beaten Fed, Rafael Nadal and (twice) Novak Djokovic. Says here his newfound, self-described mental toughness has arrived in the Nick of time.