It turned exactly how it was expected to when Rafael Nadal and Nick Kyrgios turned up for their fourth-round match at the ongoing Australian Open. Though the Spaniard won 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(6), 7-6(4) at the Rod Laver Arena to book his 12th quarterfinal spot in Melbourne, the local lad Kyrgios did not go down without a fight.

In a rivalry that has grown more and more controversial over the years, the Round of 16 match was expected to be a high-octane showdown especially after what the Australian did in his second-round match.

Frustration at being called for time violation, Kyrgios impersonated Nadal’s infamous pre-service action which he has alleged many a time to be a pre-planned from Nadal tactic to slow down the proceedings of the game. However, Nadal did not pay much heed to Kyrgios’ actions and said, “I am here to play tennis. Honestly, I don’t care at all. It was funny, good. That’s it.”

On Monday, the match was played on equal footing with both the players challenging each other to the fullest. Nadal held serve to love nine times and scored 64 winners in the match that lasted three hours and 38 minutes.

However, 23rd seed Kyrgios should consider him unlucky that despite scoring win percentage of 75 on the first serve in comparison to Nadal’s 66, he did not win. The 24-year-old even hit 25 aces, 13 more than his opponent.

But it was the world number one’s 73 per cent of points on second serve to Kyrgios’ 38 and lesser double faults which helped him extend his bid to equal Roger Federer’s record of 20 Grand Slam titles. With the victory, Nadal has also increased the lead in the ATP Head2Head tally with Kyrgios to 5-3.

“It was a very tough match. In the beginning I was in control, but you’re never in control against Nick. When I made the mistake on serve in the second set, with one serve of mine, it was so difficult to break him again,” the 33-year-old was quoted as saying by the official website of ATP Tour.

Nadal will face his 2019 French Open final opponent Dominic Thiem in the quarters. Earlier on the day, the world number five eased past Gael Monfils in straight sets in the Round of 16. He won 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 at the Rod Laver Arena to enter the quarterfinals for the first time in Melbourne and become the first Austrian player to qualify for the last 8 since Stefan Koubek in 2002.