Rafael Nadal will face Tomas Berdych in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open after both men enjoyed comfortable victories in the fourth round.
Nadal had to save six break points in the opening set before easing to a 7-5 6-1 6-4 victory over 14th seed Kevin Anderson, while Berdych saw off home hope Bernard Tomic 6-2 7-6 (7/3) 6-2.
Third seed Nadal admitted he thought of quitting during his second round match with American Tim Smyczek on Wednesday, the Spaniard suffering from dizziness and nausea as he fell two sets to one behind.
However, the nine-time French Open champion dug deep to battle back and win in five sets and looks to be working his way back to form and full fitness after the latter half of 2014 was ruined by a wrist injury and appendicitis.
The 28-year-old had to save a break point in the fifth game of the first set and five more in the 11th before finally getting a chance to break the big-hitting Anderson, who netted a simple volley to give Nadal the set.
From that point there was only going to be one winner and Berdych will have to improve his dreadful record against Nadal to reach the semi-finals in Melbourne for the second year running.
Nadal has an 18-3 record against the seventh seeded Czech, who won three of their first four meetings but has lost the last 17 in a row.
"It's very special to be in the quarter-finals after a tough period of time for me, it's a fantastic result," Nadal said.
There was better news for the home fans when teenager Nick Kyrgios staged a brilliant comeback to beat Andreas Seppi in five sets and become the first Australian man to reach the quarter-finals since Lleyton Hewitt in 2005.
Seppi had caused the shock of the tournament by knocking out Roger Federer in the previous round and carried on where he left off on Hisense Arena, winning the first two sets 7-5 6-4.
Kyrgios took the third set 6-3 and saved a match point in the fourth before winning it in a tie-break to force a decider which he eventually won 8-6 to send the partisan crowd wild - so much so that play was temporarily halted on the adjacent Rod Laver Arena due to the noise.
"This is incredible," Kyrgios said in an on-court interview. "I drew on my experience from Wimbledon last year, coming back from two sets down against (Richard) Gasquet. I knew I had the legs to do it."
Andy Murray extended one impressive streak and will need to maintain another to keep his bid for a third grand slam title on course.
Murray secured his 16th consecutive grand slam quarter-final appearance on Sunday with a rollercoaster victory over Grigor Dimitrov in the fourth round in Melbourne.
The 27-year-old looked set to be dragged into a decider when Dimitrov led 5-2 in the fourth set, but won the next five games to complete a 6-4 6-7 (5/7) 6-3 7-5 success in just over three and a half hours.
The thrilling contest started on Sunday evening local time but fittingly stretched into the first hour of Australia Day, with Murray now set on improving his perfect 10-0 record against Australian players at tour level when he takes on home favourite Nick Kyrgios for a place in the semi-finals on Tuesday.
The 19-year-old had earlier saved a match point as he came from two sets down to beat Roger Federer's conqueror Andreas Seppi 8-6 in the fifth set.
