Nadal & Murray progress but Federer crashes out

Two days after contemplating calling time on his Australian Open campaign, a rejuvenated Rafael Nadal surged into the fourth round in Melbourne on Friday.

Nadal came close to retiring from his second round match with Tim Smyczek due to nausea and dizziness, the nine-time French Open champion eventually recovering from two sets to one down to avoid a first ever defeat to a qualifier in a grand slam.

The 28-year-old was back on Rod Laver Arena 48 hours later and enjoyed a far more pleasant experience, beating Israel's Dudi Sela 6-1 6-0 7-5 to set up a last-16 clash with big-serving South African Kevin Anderson.

"I started playing well with not many mistakes and Dudi was making more than usual in the first two sets, but I was playing much better than the other day," said Nadal.

"The other night was one of the toughest moments I have spent on court. My body was not in good condition, I felt I was very lucky to be through. I thought at 2-1 down I was going to have to take the plane and go back to Majorca."

Four-time champion Roger Federer suffered his earliest exit at the Australian Open since 2003 as he slumped to a stunning four-set defeat against Italian Andreas Seppi.

Seppi came into the match having lost all 10 of his previous matches against the 17-time grand slam champion, snatching just one set in the process.

But incredibly, the world number 46 pulled off a 6-4 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 7-6 (7-5) victory over the second seed, who had reached at least the semi-final stage each year from 2004 to 2014.

Federer had been seeded to face either Andy Murray or Grigor Dimitrov in the quarter-finals, and both the Scot and the Bulgarian will sense the draw opening up, with possible semi-final rival Rafael Nadal also looking shaky early on in the fortnight.

"I just tried to enjoying playing on centre court (Rod Laver Arena) because it's not often I get the chance," Seppi said in his post-game interview, televised by Eurosport.

"It was one of the best matches for sure otherwise I can't win against Roger. It's never comfortable playing against Roger, you never can feel comfortable.

"I was focusing on my service games as I was not getting many chances on his. The tie-break was great, especially the last point. I did not think I would get the ball. I thought it was a winner so I don't know how I hit a winner."

Seppi could potentially face home favourite Nick Kyrgios in the next round and admits he would relish the chance of facing another partisan crowd.

"It would be great, maybe on this court again, maybe again against all the people."

Federer's defeat means Seppi will take on Australian Nick Kyrgios in the fourth round, with the winner to face either Murray or Dimitrov in the quarter-finals.

Kyrgios battled a bad back and a nosebleed to beat Tunisia's Malek Jaziri in straight sets (6-3 7-6 [8-6] 6-1) and was less taken aback than everyone else by the identity of his next opponent.

"I wasn't like really surprised," the world number 53 said. "I knew Seppi is capable of playing that sort of tennis, to beat some of the top guys. I don't think Roger played too bad at all. It was a tough match.

"Obviously I'd rather play Seppi than Federer, of course. But I know it's going to be a really tough match in a couple days. I played him (Seppi) once at the US Open. That was a really, really tough match. I probably played the best tennis I played in my life (winning in straight sets). I need to be ready again."

A change of venue failed to halt Andy Murray's serene progress as he took on Portugal's Joao Sousa in Melbourne.

Murray had played his first two matches on Margaret Court Arena and won both in straight sets to set up a third-round clash with Sousa, who knocked out 32nd seed Martin Klizan.

The sixth seed was required to switch to Hisense Arena on Friday but found the new surroundings equally to his liking, taking the opening set 6-1 in 31 minutes.

Murray had to save a break point in the third game of the match but did so in style, hammering a service winner to get back to deuce and eventually taking the game with successive aces.

The former Wimbledon champion then won Sousa's next service games and held his own to make it five games in a row and take a step closer to a fourth-round meeting with 10th seed Grigor Dimitrov, who had earlier beaten Marcos Baghdatis in five sets, 4-6 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-3.

"I was up two sets to love and 4-1 and Joao came back into it and we played some very good points towards the end of the match," Murray said in an on-court interview.

"He competed very well and made it difficult in the end. It was a good match.

"I've had three quite quick matches which helps but you expect with every round they are going to get tougher so if you can conserve as much energy as possible that's good."

Dimitrov was joined in the fourth round by Tomas Berdych, the seventh seed defeating Serbia's Viktor Troicki 6-4 6-3 6-4.

Berdych will face Bernard Tomic in the last 16 after Tomic won an all-Australian clash with Sam Groth.

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