TWO former Australian Open winners and a couple of future stars won through to the quarter finals in the top half of the men’s draw with some thrilling contests on Day 9.

World number one, Rafael Nadal booked a spot in the quarter finals after an epic four-set win over Australian, Nick Kyrgios last night. The Spaniard won the first set before Kyrgios returned serve in the second, and Nadal had to fight through two tight tiebreakers as the often-criticised firebrand Australian kept fighting until the end. Nadal won 6-3 3-6 7-6 7-6 in a match that lasted more than three and a half hours – an hour more than any other match the world number one has played at Melbourne Park in 2020. He hit 64 winners and only 27 unforced errors to Kyrgios’ 50 and 43, with the Australian’s 25 aces and break point conversion (two breaks from three points) more efficient than his higher ranked opponent (two from nine). Kyrgios’ second break came in the fourth set with Nadal serving for the match at 5-4, keeping himself in the contest for a little longer and indicative of his fight on the night. Both players were dominant on serve with Nadal shading Kyrgios on first serve point percentage won (85-73) but was a lot stronger on his second serve (64-37).

Next up for the Spaniard is fifth seed Austrian, Dominic Thiem. He almost fell at the hands of Alex Bolt in the second round, but has survived and now takes on Nadal in a quarter final. He defeated 10th seed Frenchman, Gael Monfils in straight sets, triumphing 6-2 6-4 6-4 in an hour and 50 minutes. While Monfils hit nine aces, he also hit 32 unforced errors to Thiem’s 19, with the Austrian being more efficient with 31 winners. The 26-year-old reaches his first Australian Open quarter final after back-to-back fourth round appearances in 2017-18, having made the past two finals and prior to that two semi-finals at Roland Garros. It will be a tough ask for him to down Nadal, but he will look to continue his dominance on serve where he won 85 per cent of his first serve points and 75 per cent of his second serve points, only dropping 13 points to his opponent on-serve throughout the three sets. The receiving points won was the big difference between the pair with a 42-17 per cent comparison.

Seventh seed German, Alexander Zverev has become the first player to defeat Andrey Rublev in 2020, downing the up-and-coming Russian in straight sets. Zverev won 6-4 6-4 6-4 in 97 minutes on Melbourne Arena to reach his first quarter final at Melbourne Park. His serve was on-point in the match, recording a 75 per cent first serve percentage, producing 11 aces and winning 91 per cent of his first serve points. Even his second serve which has been criticised at times yielded him success 61 per cent of the time. Zverev hit the 34 aces and only 23 unforced errors to Rublev’s 17 and 24 as the Russian could not penetrate through the German’s impressive serving game. Both players are capable hitters, but it was the seventh seed who stood up time and time again to record the win and just remind his fellow 22-year-old who had more runs on the board to-date. Zverev will need to continue that kind of serving in his next match, clocking up an average of 200kph against Rublev, but will be asked of much more on return against Swiss hitter, Stan Wawrinka.

Wawrinka wound back the clock to his title-winning days when he down Daniil Medvedev in five sets. The tour’s most beautiful backhand returned as the 34-year-old showed he was far from done at majors, taking down the player many consider as the next Grand Slam winner. He had to fight for it, coming back from two sets to one down to post a 6-2 2-6 4-6 7-6 6-2 victory in three hours and 25 minutes. Wawrinka served one less ace than Medvedev (19-18), but his powerful strokes were a joy to behold, hitting 71 winners to 44, and while he could be a little ill-disciplined with his shotmaking (64 unforced errors to 35), he looked every bit as damaging as in his prime. Winning 76 per cent of his first serve points and breaking four times to three, he utilised the net well with a 67 per cent winning ratio there. It has been six years since he triumphed in the Grand Slam final here at Melbourne Park, but with two semi-finals since, the Swiss veteran knows what it takes to go deep and he is as much in the title race as anyone else after Novak Djokovic.

[1] R. Nadal (ESP) defeated [23] N. Kyrgios (AUS) 6-3 3-6 7-6 7-6
[5] D. Thiem (AUT) defeated [10] G. Monfils (FRA) 6-2 6-4 6-4
[15] S. Wawrinka (SUI) defeated [4] D. Medvedev (RUS) 6-2 2-6 4-6 7-6 6-2
[7] A. Zverev (GER) defeated [17] A. Rublev (RUS) 6-4 6-4 6-4