Agencies
MELBOURNE, January 25
Rafael Nadal will face Tomas Berdych in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open after both men enjoyed comfortable victories in the fourth round on Sunday. Nadal had to save six break points in the opening set before easing to a 7-5 6-1 6-4 victory over 14th seed Kevin Anderson, while Berdych saw off home hope Bernard Tomic 6-2 7-6 6-2.
Third seed Nadal admitted he thought of quitting during his second round match with American Tim Smyczek on Wednesday, the Spaniard suffering from dizziness and nausea as he fell two sets to one behind.
However, the nine-time French Open champion dug deep to battle back and win in five sets and looks to be working his way back to form and full fitness after the latter half of 2014 was ruined by a wrist injury and appendicitis.
The 28-year-old had to save a break point in the fifth game of the first set and five more in the 11th before finally getting a chance to break the big-hitting Anderson, who netted a simple volley to give Nadal the set.
From that point there was only going to be one winner and Berdych will have to improve his dreadful record against Nadal to reach the semi-finals in Melbourne for the second year running.
Nadal has an 18-3 record against the seventh seeded Czech, who won three of their first four meetings but has lost the last 17 in a row.
"It's very special to be in the quarter-finals after a tough period of time for me, it's a fantastic result," Nadal said.
Berdych defeats home hope
Berdych, a semi-finalist last year, had too much power for the 66th-ranked Tomic as he reached the quarter-finals for the third straight year without losing a set.
"Every time I play here I'm able to bring something special, something more," he said.
"I was feeling good on the court. It's not easy, the crowd was great but they're on the other side. I'm not complaining about it, but I'm just saying that was the set-up of today's match. I'm happy with the way I handled it and glad to be in the quarter-finals."
The big-serving Berdych fired too many rockets for Tomic, winning 85 per cent of his first serves and crunching 52 winners, 17 of them aces.
Berdych was taken to a tiebreaker in the second set after zipping through the opening set in 27 minutes but was always in command, losing only three points.
Tomic offered little in the final set with the Czech cruising to victory, and Berdych admits he must find another gear against Nadal.
"I'm going to have to sit down with my team and prepare the right tactics," he said.
"Whatever I need to do I'm going to be ready for it and try to fight until the last point and bring something extra for myself."
Kyrgios stuns Seppi
There was better news for the home fans when teenager Nick Kyrgios staged a brilliant comeback to beat Andreas Seppi in five sets and become the first Australian man to reach the quarter-finals since Lleyton Hewitt in 2005.
Seppi had caused the shock of the tournament by knocking out Roger Federer in the previous round and carried on where he left off on Hisense Arena, winning the first two sets 7-5 6-4.
Kyrgios took the third set 6-3 and saved a match point in the fourth before winning it in a tie-break to force a decider, which he eventually won 8-6 to send the partisan crowd wild - so much so that play was temporarily halted on the adjacent Rod Laver Arena due to the noise.
"This is incredible," said Kyrgios. "I drew on my experience from Wimbledon last year, coming back from two sets down against (Richard) Gasquet. I knew I had the legs to do it."
