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 Nadal's fidgeting, shorts-tugging preparation before serves is a
famous quirk of the Spaniard's game but it fell foul of watchful
Greek umpire Evanthia Asderaki, and at exactly the wrong moment.
With the third set locked at 4-4 and deuce, the world number one's
breach of the 20-second time limit saw him forfeit his first serve
and throw away the ball in disgust in a rare loss of composure at
Rod Laver Arena.
Nishikori duly won the next two points to capture the break and
leave the Spaniard muttering as he trudged back to his chair,
throwing a withering look at Asderaki.
Clearly fired up, Nadal struck back the next game to put the match
back on serve and punished the profligate Nishikori in the tiebreak
to set up a quarter-final against red-hot 22-year-old Grigor
Dimitrov.
Nadal later complained that he had been given no warning before
being slapped with the second-time violation.
"The rules say you can do it, but in my opinion that goes against
the show, that goes against the fans," the top seed told reporters
after closing out an attritional match in three hours and 16
minutes.
"The rules are there. Sometimes I accept the rules, sometimes I am
wrong.
"I will try to go quicker for the future, but it's important to have
people on the chair who understand the game."
The brush with the chair umpire capped an eventful afternoon for the
13-times grand slam champion, who suffered the indignity of being
broken four times having not surrendered serve in his previous three
matches.
NADAL TUMBLE
After the second of the breaks arrived in the second set, Nadal took
a tumble on the baseline but instinctively rolled to protect the
knees that have troubled him throughout his career.
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The lace on one of his sneakers did not escape damage,
however, forcing Nadal to scurry off the court for five minutes
to grab a new a pair from his locker.
Nadal also struggled with a monstrous blister on the palm of his
racquet hand, adding to his travails during a fiercely contested
match.
Nadal had come hurtling into the match with a brutal demolition
of Gael Monfils, but encountered a far different beast in 16th
seeded Nishikori.
Dictating the play for large stretches of the match, the
clean-hitting Japanese demanded his opponent's stoutest defense
as he moved the Mallorcan around the court and struck 36 of the
crispest winners.
"Always it's tough against him in every surface. He's a very
complete player," Nadal said. "He's very quick. He's able to do
the most difficult thing in tennis, that's taking the ball early
and changing the directions.
"Kei is a potential top-10 player. So that's the real thing.
It's a great victory for me."
Beaten by a string of deft Nishikori drop-shots, Nadal returned
fire with a series of sizzling forehands down the line to
capture the second set before motoring to a 4-1 lead in the
third.
A capitulation appeared likely but Nishikori roared back to win
five straight games in a scrambling revival that would have
impressed his watching coach Michael Chang, a famous hustler.
But as has happened so many times before, Nadal found another
gear when required to bring the match back on serve and the
weary Japanese surrendered in the tiebreak in a hail of unforced
errors.
(Editing by John O'Brien and Nick Mulvenney)
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