Aussie Kyrgios has home-court edge

But will it be enough when he faces Nadal?

MELBOURNE, Australia — Nick Kyrgios put aside a bloody hand, a hamstring issue, a tiff with the chair umpire and a resilient opponent who saved a pair of match points.

When the Australian Open thirdround thriller ended after about 4½ hours Saturday, Kyrgios dropped to his back behind the baseline. Guess what’s next for the home-crowd favorite? A much-anticipated matchup Monday with a familiar, but decidedly not friendly, foe: No. 1 Rafael Nadal.

Kyrgios eventually got past No. 16 Karen Khachanov 6-2, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (6), 6-7 (7), 7-6 (8) with the help of 33 aces and what sounded like an entire country of supporters in the stands.

“This is just epic, man,” Kyrgios said. “Like, I don’t even know what’s going on.”

Kyrgios initially was a point from winning at 6-5 in the third-set tiebreaker, then again an hour later at 8-7 in the fourth-set tiebreaker, but he needed yet another hour to pull out the victory when Khachanov pushed a backhand wide.

“I was losing it mentally, a little bit,” Kyrgios said. “I thought I was going to lose, honestly.”

Along the way, he hit a dive-androll backhand, scraped his knuckles and, after wiping the blood, was warned for a time violation. That set off Kyrgios, who explained why play was delayed and said to the chair umpire, “Are you stupid? Well, take it back then.”

There are sure to be more fireworks Monday during the eighth edition of

Nadal vs. Kyrgios. Even so, Kyrgios tried to downplay the animosity Saturday, saying: “Whatever happens between us, he’s an amazing player. Arguably, he’s the greatest of all-time.”

So far, Nadal holds a 4-3 head-tohead edge, including a contentious win in their last meeting, at Wimbledon last July.

Nadal was not thrilled that Kyrgios hit a ball right at him in that match.

In early matches Sunday, Canada’s Milos Raonic advanced to the men’s quarterfinals by beating Marin Cilic of Croatia, 6-4, 6-3, 7-5. On the women’s side, Sofia Kenin beat 15-year-old fellow American Coco Gauff 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-0 to reach the quarters of a major for the first time, and two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic downed Maria Sakkari of Greece 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-2 to make the quarterfinals.

Lee Jin-man The Associated Press An exhausted Nick Kyrgios of Australia lies on the court Saturday as he celebrates after defeating Russia’s Karen Khachanov in a five-set, four-tiebreaker third-round Australian Open match in Melbourne. Up next is bitter rival Rafael Nadal.