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Nick Kyrgios will meet Novak Djokovic in Indian Wells in what will be their second match-up in a fortnight, while Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will face each other for the first time since their epic Australian Open final.
Kyrgios and world number two Djokovic will contest a round of 16 fixture after the Australian number 15 seed took just 73 minutes to beat highly regarded German Alexander Zverev 6-3, 6-4 in what was billed as the 'next-gen battle'.
Breaks in the third and ninth games helped Kyrgios claim the first set, before another break of the 18th-seeded Zverev's serve in the 10th game of the second iced the win.
"I thought I just competed well, it was always going to be a tough match," Kyrgios said.
"He's been playing great tennis and on the rise ever since juniors. I knew it was going to be tough."
The match was not without incident, however, with Kyrgios involved in heated exchanges with chair umpire Cedric Mourier on more than one occasion, while he was also caught out swearing loudly on court.
Kyrgios unleashed a sublime serving performance to beat Djokovic in the Mexico Open quarter-finals in Acapulco two weeks ago and they will go toe to toe again after the former world number one defeated Juan Martin del Potro 7-5, 4-6, 6-1.
"It was definitely difficult to overcome this challenge tonight," Djokovic said.
"The third set was probably the best tennis that I played this year and I'm just glad I was able to pick up my game."
The winner of Kyrgios versus Djokovic will meet the victor of the Federer and Nadal clash, which is the most anticipated showdown at the Indian Wells Masters in light of not only their career head-to-head meetings but also their thrilling Australian Open decider in late January.
Federer beat Nadal in five tight sets at Melbourne Park to secure his 18th major singles title and he booked another date with the Spaniard via a 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-4) triumph over Steve Johnson.
The Swiss, who is a four-time champion at Indian Wells with his last title coming in 2012, fired 12 aces and never faced a break point against Johnson, who reached 136 on the radar gun in a big-serving encounter.
Nadal advanced with a 6-3, 7-5 win against 26th seed Fernando Verdasco for his 50th career victory at the desert tournament, where he has won three titles but none since 2013.
The 30-year-old Nadal leads the head-to-head meetings with Federer on the ATP World Tour 23-12.
Their meeting on Thursday (AEDT) will be the earliest they have played since their first match in 2004 at Miami, where Nadal won.
"That's why I came here, to play against guys like Rafa. Now we have it," said Federer, who is ranked 10th on the ATP World Tour rankings.
"I'm going to be excited now, I'd better be excited now otherwise I came for the wrong reasons."
Nadal won 80 per cent of his first-serve points and three of five break points against Verdasco, who had led 3-2 in the second set.
World number six Nadal called it unlucky that he and Federer were to play before the quarter-finals.
"It doesn't matter if everybody is playing well because from our part of the draw, only one of us is going to be in that semi-finals," Nadal said.
"So that's tough, but that's not happening every week. Only thing we can do to avoid that is be in higher position of the ranking."
In the women's Indian Wells tournament, number two seed Angelique Kerber lost to 14th-seeded Elena Vesnina 6-3, 6-3 in the fourth round. Kerber, however, is assured of regaining the number one ranking from injured Serena Williams next week.
ABC/AP
Topics: tennis, sport, united-states