Tennis was treated to an unexpected epic at the ATP Cup on Tuesday, when the last-minute sitting-out of Alex de Minaur led to a clash between Stefanos Tsitsipas and Nick Kyrgios—two players with personalities so big they could barely both fit into Brisbane's Pat Rafter Arena.

As one might expect, the match was determined by the tightest of margins, Kyrgios winning it 7-6 (7), 6-7 (3), 7-6 (5), with no breaks of serve and Kyrgios taking the points total by just 120-116.

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Kyrgios' notoriously un-special return of serve came in clutch in the first and last tiebreaks: An aggressive answer to Tsitsipas' second serve helped him secure the opening set:

It also put a dent in the confidence of Tsitsipas, who proceeded to go to the bench and unintentionally graze his father—the Greek team's captain—with a racquet smash. (Tsitsipas was given a code violation, which would turn into a point penalty two games later.)

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"It was fine. It happened accidentally," Tsitsipas said. "I didn't mean to do it and straight away forgot about it and moved on from there. It happens."

Kyrgios, who's had an uncharacteristically calm tournament by his standards, is serving his six-month probation and therefore can't commit any "major offenses" without incurring a 16-week suspension. Earlier, he credited his teammates and psychologist for helping him stay in check so far.

"I don't think you should be giving it too much attention, or looking too far into it, to be honest," Kyrgios said of the Tsitsipas incident. "I've done some stupid things as well in the heat of the moment, so it was obviously an accident, so."

In the third-set tiebreak, Kyrgios ended the match with another return-backhand bang, guaranteeing Australia a 3-0 record in the tournament's most difficult group.

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Australia begins the knockout stage with a quarterfinal tie versus Great Britain on Thursday (Wednesday night in the U.S.). What Kyrgios will do next is anyone's guess.