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

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 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, who saw his great rival Roger Federer suffer a shock exit at the hands of Italy’s Andreas Seppi earlier in the day.

“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.”

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

Kyrgios battled a bad back and a nosebleed to beat Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri in straight sets 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.”

Dimitrov twice recovered from a set down to beat Marcos Baghdatis 4-6 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-3 in a match lasting three hours and 28 minutes.

He 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.