Rafael Nadal survived suffocating humidity, a transcendent little Argentine and 4 hours of primitive, guttural tennis to move into the quarterfinals of the Australian Open with a 6-3 6-7 6-3 6-3 victory over Diego Schwartzman.

After strolling through the first week of the Australian Open, his first three official matches of the year after withdrawing from Brisbane with his ongoing knee injury, the in-form Schwartzman provided Nadal with his first true test of 2018. Schwartzman arrived on Rod Laver Arena in the form of his life to date having reached his maiden slam quarterfinal last year at the US Open and risen to a career-high ranking of 25.

The Argentine made his presence felt from the beginning belying his 5’5” frame by jumping into backhands and meeting the ball as early as possible, but Nadal held the challenger off, particularly utilizing great width on his crosscourt backhand to create space for his forehand and utilizing slice to force errors from his opponent.

“Is always better winning in two hours than in four,” said Nadal. “But that's it. It was a good test for me. It was a lot of hours on court. Moments under pressure. So, yeah, a lot of positive things that I managed well.”

As the humidity invited itself into the match and the points lengthened, Nadal found yet more friction from his friend. The Spaniard thrice led by a break in set two, including at *6-5, but he was pegged back by the Argentine who continuously suffocated the baseline, taking the ball early and pounding backhands down the line.

“Three times break up in the second,” Nadal said. “Then you lose that many chances and you're in trouble. But of course, he played well, and he played aggressive. Yep, he did a lot of things well, and I didn't play as aggressive as I did last couple of days.”

Although Nadal secured his foothold in the final two sets and saw both out with identical 6-3 scores, the friction provided by Schwartzman was ever present, most notably in the fourth set which began with the 2009 champion surviving a 12-minute epic service game and ended with the 25-year old’s last stand at *4-3 0-40. But Nadal was equal to his challenger, saving all three break points and powering to victory.

“After the second set, it was a very tough moment,” Nadal said. “The third set was a great set to win, being honest. My serve start to work much better after the second. I started to win some free points again with the serve, because for a set and a half almost I didn't win a free point with my serve.”

There is little doubt that Nadal would have preferred a 2-hour routine victory as far away from the humid conditions he detests so much, but it provided the Spaniard with his first test of the entire season and with a day of rest, it will surely be invaluable as he moves on to a blockbuster quarterfinal match against his first slam champion opponent of the year, Marin Cilic, who saw off Pablo Carreno Busta in four sets.

“Everybody suffers in four-hours' match,” finished Nadal. “Tough conditions out there with a lot of humidity. you can't expect an easy match. Against Marin will be a tough one, but at the same time, is a beautiful match to play against a great player.”

“We know each other. We played a couple of times already. And, yeah, I know I need to play well. That's the real thing. I know I need to play well. That's what I gonna try. I hope to be ready to make that happen.”

Photos: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images AsiaPac