4-hour marathon goes Nadal’s way

MELBOURNE, Australia — Rafael Nadal struggled for nearly four hours Sunday to grind out a 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-3 victory over Diego Schwartzman and reach the Australian Open quarterfinals for the 10th time.

The top seed played the longest match of the tournament so far. Nadal lost his first set of the week, and the Argentine saved two match points before going down.

“A great battle — he’s a good friend of mine,” Nadal said. “This is the first big match that I played in 2018. That’s confidence for myself, confidence I can resist for four hours on court at a good intensity. I’m very happy for that.

“It’s always better winning in two hours than in four. It was a lot of hours on court, moments under pressure.

“There were a lot of positive things that I managed well. After the second set, it was very tough. In the third and fourth my serve started working better, and probably that’s why I am here with a victory.”

The world No. 1 will next test himself against 2017 Wimbledon finalist Marin Cilic, who won his 100th match at a Grand Slam against 10th-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta 6-7 (2), 6-3, 7-6 (0), 7-6 (3).

Third-seeded Grigor Dimitrov withstood 36 aces from Nick Kyrgios in a match that featured nearly 140 combined winners, with the Bulgarian pulling out a 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4), 4-6, 7-6 (4) victory.

On the women’s side, Madison Keys continued her strong run, returning to the quarterfinals for the first time in three years with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over eighth-seeded Caroline Garcia.

The U.S. Open finalist, seeded just 17th after undergoing wrist surgery and missing several months last year, has yet to drop a set and is averaging a brisk 621⁄2 minutes on court through her first four rounds.

Keys, the only American woman to reach the fourth round, will meet 21stseeded Angelique Kerber in the quarterfinals.

The former champion rallied to overcome the lobs and drops of Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.