Australian Open day eight: Nadal sees off Kyrgios while women’s champions fall

The story of Monday’s action from Melbourne Park.

Rafael Nadal repeated his Wimbledon victory over Nick Kyrgios to reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.

The most-anticipated match of the tournament so far certainly lived up to its billing, with Kyrgios, who paid tribute to basketball star Kobe Bryant by wearing a Los Angeles Lakers vest, throwing everything at the world number one but just coming up short in a 6-3 3-6 7-6 (6) 7-6 (4) defeat.

Nadal next faces Dominic Thiem while there are no former Melbourne champions left in the women’s draw after victories for Simona Halep, Garbine Muguruza, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Anett Kontaveit.

Picture of the day

The sun sets over Nadal and Kyrgios (Andy Wong/AP)

Bringing the tricks

It was not just Kyrgios playing the showman at Melbourne Park on Monday. Gael Monfils, no strange to the unconventional, won a point against Thiem with an underarm serve while Polish teen Iga Swiatek went for the tweener.

Tat’s the way

“Unfortunately I have to confirm it,” he said sheepishly. “I really would like to deny it but no.

“I had a pretty bad start to the season last year, some first-round losses, and after a long trip to Indian Wells from Rio, really jet-lagged, she said if you win this title I’m going to make a tattoo. I ended up winning that one so this tradition started.”

Fallen seeds

Nick Kyrgios wears an LA Lakers jersey in tribute to Kobe Bryant — Nick Kyrgios, who paid tribute to Kobe Bryant, was one of the seeds to fall (Andy Wong/AP)

Who’s up next?

Sofia Kenin and Ons Jabeur will both bid to reach a first grand slam semi-final while Novak Djokovic takes on Milos Raonic and Roger Federer meets Tennys Sandgren.

British trio Joe Salisbury, Ken Skupksi and Jonny O’Mara are all in action in the quarter-finals of the men’s doubles.