Rafael Nadal breaks Kyrgios storm to enter quarter-finals

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 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 Slam crowns.

"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.

The second of those, last year, was a torrid affair, with Kyrgios ranting at the umpire, serving underarm and deliberately firing a forehand at the Spaniard.

The Australian walked out on Rod Laver Arena wearing a yellow Bryant singlet as a mark of respect to the legend who tragically died in a helicopter crash, and a short video tribute was shown. Both held their opening service games before Nadal got a break in game four.

He was reading Kyrgios' monster serve well and getting returns back over the net.

Kyrgios began talking to himself, never a good sign so early in the match, and with Nadal too strong from the back of the court he comfortably took the set.

But the Australian calmed down and crucially held his opening second set service game in a 10-minute slog, and as his boisterous fans got behind him he broke Nadal with a looping forehand, punching the air in delight for a 3-1 lead.

Feeding off the crowd energy, he sealed the set with an ace.

Kyrgios was enjoying himself, grinning and applauding Nadal as the pair played some mesmerising rallies in a high-quality third set.

But he began unravelling at 6-5 down, becoming irritated with a line judge and telling the umpire: "We're giving 130 percent and he can't get line calls right. It's embarrassing." And when Kyrgios went 3-1 down in the tie-breaker, he slammed his racquet, leaving it a mangled mess.

Then at 5-5 in the tie-break Kyrgios double faulted, giving Nadal a set point. In bizarre scenes, the Spaniard responded by double faulting himself before finally taking the set, furiously pumping his fists.

Kyrgios appeared spent and was broken to love for Nadal to take 2-1 fourth-set lead, and the Spaniard appeared headed for the finish line. But he amazingly sent down a double fault when serving for the match to give Kyrgios a break point and it again went to a tie-break, where Nadal finally sealed victory.

Meanwhile, former Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka turned back the clock in a vintage performance to stun world number four Daniil Medvedev Monday and race into the Australian Open quarter-finals.

The popular Swiss star, who beat Rafael Nadal in the 2014 decider, dug deep to come from behind in five intense sets and win 6-2, 2-6, 4-6, 7-6 (7/2), 6-2.

It set up a last-eight clash with German seventh seed Alexander Zverev.

Alexander Zverev ended the hot streak of his close friend Andrey Rublev of Russia to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals for the first time on Monday.

The seventh seed broke once in each set for a clinical 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 win in just 1hr 37mins to go into a match-up against Stan Wawrinka.