Focused Kyrgios battles past childhood hero

Nick Kyrgios boosted hopes of a home winner at the Australian Open by beating his childhood hero Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the third round.

The Australian has made it clear how badly he wants to be in the mix for the title with his professional approach so far and he proved the stronger in the big moments to win 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (7-5).

Kyrgios attended the 2008 event, when Tsonga reached the final, as a 12-year-old fan.

Kyrgios had a bit of a letdown in the second set but proved the king of the tie-break, winning five points in a row in the final one and celebrating his win with an exuberant pump of the fists.

“It was amazing,” he said. “Playing Jo I was obviously very nervous. He was a guy I looked up to as a kid, still do, he’s a champion of the game.

“I was getting prepared for a fifth set. I just stayed composed, tried to make returns and fired it through.”

Rafael Nadal looked in ominous form in a crushing win over 28th seed Damir Dzumhur to reach the last 16.

Playing in much cooler conditions than those which greeted the daytime matches, Nadal took an hour and 50 minutes to overcome the Bosnian 6-1 6-3 6-1.

Last year’s runner-up, who plays 24th seed Diego Schwartzman next, has yet to drop a set and has put concern about the state of his knees firmly behind him.

Things were tougher for third seed Grigor Dimitrov, the man Nadal beat in an epic semi-final 12 months ago.

Dimitrov has yet to find the form that carried him to the brink of a first grand slam final but there is no doubt about his desire and he battled past 30th seed Andrey Rublev 6-3 4-6 6-4 6-4.

Dimitrov and Rublev served a remarkable 28 double faults between them, with the Bulgarian throwing in 15.

He surely cannot afford a repeat against Kyrgios, who he lost to at the Brisbane International two weeks ago.