- Updates from the evening session of day eight in Melbourne
- McEnroe slams Margaret Court as the ‘crazy aunt’ of tennis
- Any thoughts? Email or tweet @tumcarayol
8.56am GMT
After their win, Coco Gauff and Caty McNally dedicated their celebration to Kobe.
Quarterfinal kids!
Down a set and a break, @CocoGauff and @CatyMcNally rally to surprise No. 10 seed Aoyama/Shibahara 4-6 7-5 6-3 to reach the final eight.#AO2020 | #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/YIQyLjuzlE
8.54am GMT
Rafael Nadal 6-3 Nick Kyrgios: The world number one takes the first set. Quite a routine set for the Spaniard – he took advantage of one weak service game from the Australian and easily held onto his serve. These slow conditions and aren’t helping Kyrgios, but neither is the opponent across the net.
8.52am GMT
Rafael Nadal *5-3 Nick Kyrgios: After a couple of quick holds from both, Nadal looked to make another move by reaching 15-30 on Kyrgios’ serve. This time, Kyrgios found two important first serves to move up 40-30 before playing a decent drop volley. Nadal chased down the dropshot and sent his response wide, handing Kyrgios another hold. The world number one will serve for the set.
8.47am GMT
You thought the Coco Gauff story was over for another tournament? Think again. 15 year-old Gauff and 18 year old Caty McNally just recovered from a set and break down to defeat the 10th seeds in doubles, Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara, 4-6 7-5 6-3 to reach the first slam quarterfinal of their careers. They will face second seeds Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic.
8.41am GMT
Rafael Nadal 4-1* Nick Kyrgios: Nadal consolidates the break fairly well. The Spaniard opened his service game on fire, with a searing backhand crosscourt winner followed by a forehand down-the-line winner. Kyrgios showed some encouraging signs by pegging him back to 30-30 by grinding through a couple of physical points and forcing a Nadal error. At 30-30, Nadal found two great unreturned first serves to seal the hold.
8.38am GMT
Here are Nadal’s comments on Kyrgios from Saturday. Nadal was asked if he likes the Australian:
I don’t know him personally, honestly, to have a clear opinion. Yeah, my answer is better to…
It’s clear, of course, that when he does stuff that in my opinion is not good, I don’t like. When he plays good tennis and he shows passion for this game, he is a positive player for our tour, and I want my tour bigger, not smaller. So the players who make the tour bigger are important for the tour.
8.36am GMT
Rafael Nadal *3-1 Nick Kyrgios: Nadal breaks first. The good news for Kyrgios is that he slammed down two aces and a service winner to lead 40-15, but otherwise that was a dire service game.
From 40-15 up, he dumped two consecutive drop shots into the net. After an ace to generate a third game point, he missed two easy backhands in a row. On the third deuce, he missed an easy open court backhand. He then lost his serve with a backhand well long. A bit of a mess. “F*ck, man,” he says.
8.29am GMT
Rafael Nadal 2-1* Nick Kyrgios. This time, a quick love hold from Nadal to retain his early lead. Some great serving from the world number one to reach 40-0 and then he closed it off with a moment of pure class, hooking a gorgeous angled forehand for a clean winner while on the run.
8.27am GMT
Rafael Nadal *1-1 Nick Kyrgios. A quick hold for Kyrgios to open his account. Nadal very quickly showed that he will be going after his forehand whenever he can; at 30-15 he crushed an inside out forehand that just skidded out. Kyrgios sealed his first hold of the day with a service winner. There will be many more.
8.22am GMT
Rafael Nadal 1-0* Nick Kyrgios: The world number one seals his opening hold, but it wasn’t easy. Nadal double faulted twice in the game, including at 40-30 to bring them back to deuce. From deuce, he found a big serve and then forced a Kyrgios error with a firm crosscourt backhand to hold.
8.21am GMT
There is no love lost between these two and Kyrgios has always been very happy to discuss that. Here are Kyrgios’ comments on Nadal during his wide-ranging interview with Ben Rothenberg on the No Challenges Remaining podcast last year.
“He’s my polar opposite. Literally my polar opposite. And he’s super salty.
“When he wins it’s fine, he won’t say anything bad, he’ll credit the opponent – ‘he competed well today, he’s a great player’ – but then as soon as I beat him, it’s just like ‘he has no respect for me, my fans and no respect to the game’. I’m like ‘what are you talking about? I literally played this way that I beat you the other previous times and nothing changed’.
8.15am GMT
The players are on-court. Kyrgios is a huge NBA fan and he unsurprisingly warmed up wearing Kobe Bryant’s laker jersey. As he sat down in his chair, Kyrgios was crying.
8.13am GMT
So, where will this match be won? Rafael Nadal narrowly leads the head to head 4-3 with the pair splitting their matches in 2019. Kyrgios famously toppled Nadal in Acapulco, with the Aussie playing an underarm serve and complaining about Nadal taking his time between points. Nadal followed up a few months later with a statement win at Wimbledon. Ever since Kyrgios burst onto the scene at Wimbledon in 2014, shocking Nadal in four stunning sets in the fourth round, this has been one of the truly gripping matchups of the past 6 years.
There is no big match player like Nick Kyrgios. On any given day against a lowly ranked opponent, he could find himself drawn into endless rallies but he almost always elevates his game against the elite. His first priority will be to take care of his service games, but he will also be looking to keep points as short as he possibly can. He will flatten out his groundstrokes and thump winners off both wings and he will throw in a constant variety of drop shots and net forays to keep Nadal off balance.
7.44am GMT
A solid upset to start the morning as Stan Wawrinka takes out US Open finalist Daniil Medvedev. A result like this has been coming for the three-time slam champion in recent months. He has played well for a while now but he just hasn’t quite been able to reach his top level over 5 sets against the very best. He did today.
7.35am GMT
As we wait for the night session to begin, one match is reaching its dramatic conclusion. 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka has rediscovered some vintage form against 4th seed Daniil Medvedev and he currently leads Medvedev by a double break in the fifth set at *5-2. He is on the brink of perhaps his best win since he underwent knee surgery in 2017.
7.30am GMT
Hello! Welcome to day 8 of our Australian Open coverage as the first half of fourth round action comes to an end. Tonight’s session will feature three singles matches: On Melbourne Arena, 22 year-olds Alexander Zverev and Andrey Medvedev will fight to reach the quarters. Rublev has been the in-form player this year and he is currently on a 15 match winning streak having won two tournaments in the first two weeks of the year. On Margaret Court Arena, 2016 champion Angelique Kerber will attempt to return to the quarterfinals when she faces last year’s quarterfinalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who scuppered Karolina Pliskova in the third round.
But most eyes will be on Rod Laver Arena as Nick Kyrgios takes on Rafael Nadal in front of his home crowd for the first time. The world number one has mostly coasted through the tournament playing high quality tennis and he still hasn’t dropped a set. Kyrgios arrives in the third Australian Open fourth round with the crowd firmly behind him. He has played well and fought even harder, edging out a 5th set tiebreak win over 16th seed Kharen Khachanov to reach the fourth round. The question is how his body has recovered after the first four and a half hour battle of his career, and if he has recovered, whether it even that be enough to topple the in-form world number one.
