Spain’s Rafael Nadal celebrates after victory against Australia’s Nick Kyrgios during their men’s singles match on day eight of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne
World number one Rafael Nadal weathered a fierce storm from gutsy showman Nick Kyrgios Monday to set up an Australian Open quarter-final against Dominic Thiem and keep alive his quest for a 20th Grand Slam title.
The Spanish top seed came through a riveting clash on Rod Laver Arena 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7/4) to end the gallant hopes of the basketball-mad Australian, who came on the court wearing an LA Lakers shirt in honour of Kobe Bryant.
He will now face fifth seed Thiem after the Austrian swept past Gael Monfils 6-2, 6-4, 6-4.
“What can I say about Nick? When he is playing like today with this positive attitude he gives a lot of positive things to our sport,” said Nadal, the 2009 champion who is looking to match Roger Federer’s record 20 wins.
“He’s one of the highest talents we have on our tour and I like the Nick Kyrgios during the whole of this tournament.”
“I just feel happy that I won one more match tonight, an important one,” he added.
It was billed as a grudge match after a series of bad-tempered exchanges last year when Nadal accused Kyrgios of lacking respect and the Australian fired back that the Spaniard was “super salty”.
But Kyrgios struck a conciliatory tone beforehand, calling Nadal “a hell of a player”, and it was played with respect from both sides.
There was little to split them on paper, with Nadal leading their career head-to-head 4-3 but Kyrgios 2-1 up on hardcourts and an even 1-1 in their Grand Slam matches, both at Wimbledon.
Credit: Punch