World No. 1 Rafa fends off challenge from temperamental Australian to win 6-3, 3-6, 7-6, 7-6 in a high-octane clash; advances to quarter-finals
Nick Kyrgios wears a No. 8 Los Angeles Lakers jersey in honour of basketball great Kobe Bryant
Melbourne: Rafael Nadal won a grudge match with Nick Kyrgios to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals and keep the heat on Roger Federer's record for Grand Slam titles on Monday.
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The World No. 1 labelled "super salty" by Kyrgios after he criticised the Australian's behaviour last year, fought off a furious challenge to go through 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7/4).
Nadal and Kyrgios had been feuding after some bad-tempered matches, but the Spaniard said he was impressed by what he'd seen from the often-temperamental Australian at this tournament. Kyrgios fought back to challenge Nadal in a high-octane clash played in good spirit, with a polite handshake afterwards—a far cry from some of their previous exchanges.
Spain's Rafael Nadal celebrates his Round 4 win over Australia's Nick Kyrgios on Monday Pic/PTI
"When he is playing like today with this positive attitude he gives a lot of positive things to our sport," said the Spaniard. "He's one of the highest talents we have on our tour and I like the Nick Kyrgios during the whole of this tournament."
Kyrgios said he was "shattered" by defeat to Nadal. "I'm shattered to have lost tonight. Obviously these are the matches that I want to win the most. But overall this [Australian] summer has been fun," Kyrgios said. "I feel like I've made progress as a human. A tennis player, I don't really care about as much," he said. "I want to keep going in this direction, for sure...the trouble for me is being able to actually just produce the same attitude over and over again.
Elsewhere, Swiss Stan Wawrinka beat fifth seed Daniil Medvedev 6-2, 2-6, 4-6, 7-6, 6-2 to set up a quarter-final with Germany's Alexander Zverev, who overcame close friend Andrey Rublev 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.
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