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 Under the lights of Rod Laver Arena, third seed Nadal charged
into the fourth round with a demolition of Dudi Sela, all but
banishing memories of his painful five-setter against Tim Smyczek
two days before.
Federer, a four-time Australian Open winner, faces a more lasting
agony after his 11-year run to the Melbourne semi-finals was
sensationally ended on his centre court domain.
A 30-year-old battler on a 23-match losing streak against top-10
opponents, 46th-ranked Seppi scrapped like a streetfighter to
triumph 6-4 7-6(5) 4-6 7-6(5), notching his first win against the
Swiss master at the 11th attempt.
With the terraces shrieking through the decisive tiebreaker, Seppi
was superb in the nerve-jangling clinches, and the lunging forehand
passing shot that sealed his finest win will feature on highlight
reels for years to come.
"It was for sure one of the important shots of my life," the
unshaven Italian told reporters.
"Against Roger, I never went close. I never had the chance. To have
this win in my career, it's for sure something big."
 Having lived dangerously against Italian Simone Bolelli in the
previous round, second seed Federer revealed dark premonitions had
circled his mind as early as Thursday.
"I felt for some reason yesterday and this morning it was not going
to be very simple today," he said.
"Even in practice I still felt the same way. I was just hoping it
was one of those feelings you sometimes have and it's totally not
true and you just come out and you play a routine match. Yeah, it
was a mistake."
If Sharapova had any hang-ups from her second-round scare against
Alexandra Panova, she concealed them well during a 6-1 6-1 rout of
Kazakh Zarina Diyas.
Her boyfriend Grigor Dimitrov had watched the Panova match with his
heart in his mouth.
On Friday, it was Sharapova's turn for nail-biting on the sidelines
as the young Bulgarian contender was dragged into a five-set
dog-fight by Marcos Baghdatis.
The big-hearted Cypriot, a famous finalist in 2006, rode rowdy
support from Melbourne's ethnic Greek fans on Showcourt Three but
lost the battle of fitness 4-6 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-3.
Federer's loss tore open the bottom half of the draw, opening the
door for 'Big Four' contenders and upstarts like Dimitrov to
challenge the establishment.
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Nadal, on the comeback trail after injury and illness wiped out the
last half of his 2014, showed no signs of the cramping that blighted
his previous match against Smyczek as he roared past Israeli Sela
6-1 6-0 7-5.
"I feel I was very lucky to be through because at 2-1 (on Wednesday)
I thought I was going to be on the plane to Mallorca," Nadal said
courtside.
"In terms of injuries, I feel free. No pain. In terms of tennis. You
need to play matches."
Briton Andy Murray also appeared near peak condition in trouncing
Portuguese Joao Sousa 6-1 6-1 7-5 at Hisense Arena.
But he will have to face his Wimbledon nemesis for a place in the
quarter-finals.
Dimitrov, who ended Murray's title defence at his home grand slam,
will be the sixth-seeded Scot's first real test.
Another young player expected to rock the tennis order, Canadian
seventh seed Genie Bouchard continued her ominous form with a 7-5
6-0 win over Caroline Garcia.
Third seed Simona Halep and China's Peng Shuai, taking on the mantle
of retired champion Li Na, also advanced.
Australia's dreams of a first men's champion in nearly 40 years
remain alive, with young talents Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic
reaching the last 16, the first time for two locals since Lleyton
Hewitt and Mark Philippousis in 2004.
(Editing by Justin Palmer)
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