Nadal sails in Melbourne heat; Kyrgi os out slugs‘ idol’ T song a
World No 1 Spaniard blanks Damir Dzumhur to enter Round 4 for the eleventh time
MELBOURNE: The heat wasn’t a factor for Rafael Nadal this time against Damir Dzumhur, despite the searing temperature causing trouble earlier Friday. Nadal reached the fourth round in Australia for the 11th time with the 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 win, and levelled career head-to-head record with Dzumhur. His fellow French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko followed Nadal’s match on Margaret Court Arena but didn’t make it through to the second week, losing 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 to No. 32-seeded Anett Kontaveit.
The seventh-seeded Ostapenko’s loss left only two major winners in the women’s draw — and only one of them can reach the fourth round: five-time Major winner Maria Sharapova and former Australian and US Open champion Angelique Kerber are playing each other. Nadal had lost his only previous meeting against Dzumhur, when he had to retire because of heat-related issues in the third set at Miami in 2016. Nadal moved across while local hope Nick Kyrgios beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in a night match on the main court.
TELEVISION IDOL
Actor Will Smith had a prime position in the crowd to see Kyrgios win for the first time on Rod Laver Arena, taking the last five points in the tiebreaker for a 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5) victory.
“Playing Jo, I was obviously very nervous, he was a guy I looked up to as a kid, still do,” said Kyrgios, who reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals as a teenager in 2014. “Then he gave a nod to another childhood favourite, turning to Smith in the stands.
“When I saw him out here I was so nervous, no joke,” Kyrgios said. “People think I’m cool, but I wanted him to think I was the coolest person ever.”
Kyrgios, aiming to be the first home-grown winner of the Australian men’s title in 42 years, will next play third-ranked Grigor Dimitrov.