Nikolay Davydenko and Novak Djokovic have booked their spots in the quarter finals of the Australian Open in vastly different fashion, with the Russian enduring an epic against Fernando Verdasco, while Djokovic breezed past Poland's Lucasz Kubot in straight sets.
Davydenko led two-sets to love against Spanish No.9 seed Verdasco, but was forced into five sets before prevailing 6-2 7-5 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 in a match which lasted just shy of four hours.
The No.6 seed is now through to the final eight at Melbourne Park for the fourth time in five years where the winner of Monday night's blockbuster between No.1 seed Roger Federer and Australian Lleyton Hewitt awaits.
It looked to be a straight-forward afternoon on Rod Laver Arena for the Russian, who broke in the fifth and seventh games of the first set. While Verdasco broke him early in the second, he responded in kind and then took a foothold in the match with a break in the 11th game enabling him to move two-sets up.
However, the Spaniard, a semi-finallist in Melbourne last year, responded by getting an early break in the third and while he gave that back with a double fault in the seventh game, he got the crucial break in the 10th game when Davydenko blundered on set-point.
The Spaniard kept making crucial errors, mainly double faults on key points and he handed back his early break in the fourth set in such a manner. The set went to a tie-breaker where Davydenko looked set to wrap up the victory when up 5-4 and with two serves to come. But Verdasco came good and he battled back to force it to a decider.
However, that was the end of his challenge. Davydenko got a break in the sixth game of the fifth and while Verdasco had three break-point chances he could not convert any of them.
2008 Australian Open champion, Djokovic, the No.3 seed, had dropped just one set on his way to the fourth round and didn't look seriously troubled by the world No.86, disposing of him 6-1 6-2 7-5.
The Serbian's quest to reclaim his title will resume on Wednesday when he plays either No.10 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the man he beat in the 2008 final, or No.26 seed Nicolas Almagro in the quarter finals.
The match on Hisense Arena looked like a mis-match on paper and that's how it turned out to be early on with Djokovic racing through the first set in 28 minutes. Kubot's serve looked decidedly wobbly and he was broken twice in the set to give his opponent the early running.
It wasn't an advantage that Djokovic was going to concede and while Kubot's serve improved in the second set, so did his opponent's. The Serbian only conceded one point on it for the set and after a further two breaks and 33 minutes it was 2-0.
The third set was a much tighter affair, with Kubot approaching the net more and putting pressure on Djokovic. After Djokovic broke Kubot in the fifth game, the Pole, playing just his second Australian Open, rallied to create and convert his first break-points of the match.
However, his nerve didn't hold and in the 11th game, Djokovic broke when Kubot double faulted. Djokovic then served out for the match and booked his third-straight quarter final appearance at this tournament.