Steady Nadal beats animated Kyrgios in 4

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA >> Rafael Nadal left the muttering and the preening, the underarm serving and the ‘tweening, to his younger, flashier opponent, Nick Kyrgios.

Surely, Nadal was content to collect the win in the latest installment of their rivalry.

The No. 1-ranked Nadal kept his thoughts to himself and limited his shot-making to the more traditional variety in an entertaining 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (4) victory over home-crowd favorite Kyrgios on Monday to reach the Australian Open quarterfinals and get closer to a record-tying 20th Grand Slam title.

These two guys don’t like each other. But Nadal had nothing but nice things to say after improving his head-to-head record to 5-3 against Kyrgios.

“When he wants to play, when he is focused on what he’s doing, I think he’s a very important player for our sport,” Nadal said, “because he has a big talent and is one of these players that can be very, very interesting for the crowd.”

While Kyrgios was up to some of his usual trick shots and antics, what he never did was waver in

his effort, something folks often accuse him of.

“Today,” Nadal said, “I think he played very serious, tried all the time his best.”

It certainly meant a lot to Kyrgios, who said: “I’m shattered to have lost tonight. These are the matches that I want to win the most.”

Here’s how the elevated stakes and tension affected both men: At 5-all in the pivotal third-set tiebreaker, Kyrgios doublefaulted. That offered up a gift-wrapped set point. But Nadal failed to take advantage because he doublefaulted right back.

Still, two points later, the 23rd-seeded Kyrgios put a forehand into the net, and the set was Nadal’s. Not long after, Kyrgios double-faulted again to get broken at love.

That put Nadal ahead 2-1 in the fourth, seemingly

in charge.

“Against Nick,” Nadal would say afterward, “you are never (in) control.”

Sure enough, Nadal faltered while serving for the win at 5-4, double-faulting to create a pair of break points, the second of which Kyrgios converted with a jumping forehand and celebrated by throwing his head back and screaming. Spectators rose and roared and waved their Australian flags in support of the 24-year-old from Canberra.

“A scary game,” Nadal called it, acknowledging he was hampered by nerves.

But he regrouped and pulled the win out in the closing tiebreaker, which ended with Kyrgios putting a forehand into the net.

Sure, the cool, breezy conditions played to Nadal’s advantage and dulled Kyrgios’ power-based style. But there also was this: Nadal finished with more than twice as many winners as unforced errors, 64-27.

“I’d have to win a point

three times to win a point,” Kyrgios said.

Kyrgios delivered 25 aces and some memorable moments — including walking out on court and warming up for the match in a No. 8 Los Angeles Lakers jersey to honor Kobe Bryant, the five-time NBA champion and 18-time AllStar who died in a helicopter crash Sunday at age 41.

Kyrgios switched to a No. 24 Bryant shirt for his post-match news conference and described himself as emotional at the news.

A video tribute to Bryant was played on the Rod Laver Arena scoreboards before Monday’s match.

On Wednesday, the 33-year-old Nadal’s 41st career Grand Slam quarterfinal will be against No. 5 Dominic Thiem in a rematch of the past two French Open finals, both won by Nadal.

The other men’s quarterfinal on the top half of the bracket is No. 7 Alexander Zverev vs. No. 15 Stan Wawrinka.

Harden, HOU 43 Akounmpo, MIL 43 Young, ATL 42 Doncic, DAL 41 Lillard, POR 45 Beal, WAS 38 Leonard, LAC 36 Booker, PHX 43 Davis, LAL 39 Westbrook, HOU39 James, LAL 44 LaVine, CHI 48 Ingram, NOP 42 Mitchell, UTA 44 Siakam, TOR 35 Wiggins, MIN 38 Walker, BOS 40 DeRozan, SAS 45 McCollum, POR 43 Tatum, BOS 42

The top 25 teams in The Associated Press’ college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Jan. 26, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and last week’s ranking:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

Baylor (44) Gonzaga (19) Kansas (1) San Diego St. Florida St. Louisville Dayton Villanova Duke

Seton Hall Oregon

West Virginia Kentucky Michigan St. Maryland Butler

Auburn

Iowa

Illinois Colorado 447 477 393 391 405 369 346 397 357 387 425 421 359 402 312 322 301 379 370 332 457 1551 266 1289 305 1238 286 1188 317 1297 236 1067 223 987 281 1159 276 1032 201 1014 171 1112 223 1214 229 1050 175 1085 130 833 134 858 156 897 243 1009

75 930 138 903

Record

17-1 21-1 16-3 21-0 17-2 17-3 18-2 16-3 16-3 15-4 17-4 16-3 15-4 15-5 16-4 16-4 17-2 14-5 15-5 16-4

Pts

1578 1552 1434 1408 1318 1277 1163 1110 1084 1055 926 874 839 751 650 631 619 545 483 314 36.1 30.0 29.5 29.0 28.8 28.1 27.4 27.0 26.5 26.0 25.3 25.3 25.0 24.7 23.8 22.6 22.4 22.4 21.6 21.5

Prv

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 9 8 10 12 14 15 11 17 13 16 19 21 23

Vancouver Edmonton Calgary Arizona Vegas Sharks Anaheim Los Angeles 49 49 50 51 52 50 48 50

CENTRAL DIVISION

St. Louis Colorado Dallas Chicago Winnipeg Minnesota Nashville

Boston Tampa Bay Florida Toronto Buffalo Montreal Ottawa Detroit 27 26 26 26 25 21 19 18

GP W

49 49 48 51 51 50 47 51 48 49 49 49 50 48 51 30 28 27 24 25 23 22 29 29 28 25 22 22 17 12 18 18 19 20 20 25 24 27 11 15 17 21 22 21 18 10 15 16 17 20 21 23 35

METROPOLITAN DIVISION

Washington Pittsburgh N.Y. Islanders Columbus Carolina Philadelphia N.Y. Rangers New Jersey

GP W

49 50 49 51 50 50 48 48

Sunday's games

No games scheduled

Monday's games

33 31 29 27 29 27 23 17 4 5 5 5 7 4 5 5 8 6 4 6 4 6 7 12 4 5 7 7 7 8 4 58 162 149 57 155 153 57 135 147 57 146 138 57 161 159 46 130 167 43 122 150 41 125 158 68 158 134 62 179 143 58 125 120 54 155 161 54 152 160 52 156 166 51 156 154 70 169 135 62 175 137 61 183 163 57 176 165 51 145 152 51 155 157 42 130 163 28 109 199

L OT Pts

11 14 15 16 18 17 21 24

Washington at Montreal, n. New Jersey at Ottawa, n. Tampa Bay at Dallas, n. Toronto at Nashville, n.

St. Louis at Vancouver, n. 5 5 5 8 3 6 4 7

GF GA

71 177 144 67 168 136 63 143 132 62 138 130 61 159 132 60 158 150 50 158 159 41 126 173 at Charlotte at Philadelphia at Miami

New Orleans at Toronto at Memphis at Milwaukee at Dallas at LA Lakers

Villanova at Tennessee at Florida at Akron at Toledo at Clemson at Virginia Michigan Rhode Island at VA Common at Cincinnati at B. Green at Miami (Ohio) at Rutgers at Miami at N. Illinois at Missouri at Air Force Auburn at Duke

Butler

Utah St.

Tuesday

Favorite

11⁄2 (2091⁄2) New York Off (Off) Golden State Off (Off) Boston 71⁄2 (233) at Cleveland 121⁄2 (233) Atlanta Pk (226) Denver 16 (240) Washington 6 (228) Phoenix Off (Off) LA Clippers 3 101⁄2 51⁄2 71⁄2 3 11⁄2 11⁄2 5 41⁄2 81⁄2 61⁄2 11⁄2 1 21⁄2 off 21⁄2 4

2 51⁄2 161⁄2 11⁄2 13

College basketball

at St. John's Texas A&M Mississippi St. Buffalo Kent St. Syracuse Florida St. at Nebraska at George Mason Richmond

SMU Ball St. Cent. Michigan

Purdue Virginia Tech

Ohio Georgia Fresno St. at Mississippi

Pittsburgh at Georgetown

at Wyoming