• Australian Open, Day Five

Lopez overcomes marathon man Isner to face Nadal

Feliciano Lopez now meets Rafael Nadal © PA Photos

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• Profile: Nicolas Almagro | Tomas Berdych | John Isner | Feliciano Lopez

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Feliciano Lopez set up a fourth round meeting with fellow Spaniard Rafael Nadal on Friday, coming through a punishing five-setter against John Isner at the Hisense Arena.

In a contest of two players who rely heavily upon their serve, Lopez continually acted as the pace-setter as he took the lead in sets one, three and decisively five. Isner, who after his famous Wimbledon encounter with Nicolas Mahut is never shy of a marathon contest, battled gamefully but eventually crashed out 6-3 6-7(3) 6-4 6-7(0) 6-1.

Isner actually served almost double the number of aces delivered by Lopez in the match, sending down 30 of the 46 unanswered efforts. Lopez also gifted his rival 12 points through double-faults, yet from the back of the court he had the extra guile.

Lopez claimed the first set and then was unlucky to be taken to a tiebreaker as Isner levelled in the second. The Spaniard converted six of 11 break chances, but after taking set three he once again showed his weakness in another breaker for the fourth, losing it to love.

Isner, though, appeared to tire in the decider, and as he became a fading force Lopez managed to get his racket on a greater percentage of the American's serves, winning through after nearly three-and-a-half hours on court.

It was a good day for the Spaniards as Nicolas Almagro also negotiated his way into the fourth round, beating Stanislas Wawrinka 7-6(2) 6-2 6-4. Almagro created a staggering 16 break chances in the contest as Wawrinka committed close to 50 unforced errors.

Seventh seed Tomas Berdych is next up for Almagro after he overcame a spirited challenge from Kevin Anderson to secure his passage to the fourth round. The Czech claimed a hard-fought 7-6(5) 7-6(1) 6-1 victory over the No. 30 seed.

Roger Federer's next opponent will be home favourite Bernard Tomic, who came through a tense five-setter to defeat Alexandr Dolgopolov. Tomic edged two tiebreakers en route to the deciding fifth set, where he eventually won 4-6 7-6(0) 7-6(6) 2-6 6-3 in a match that lasted 11 minutes shy of four hours.

Elsewhere, the ever-tricky Philipp Kohlschreiber collected a relatively easy win over Alejandro Falla, winning 6-3 6-3 7-6(3). Kohlschreiber now meets Juan Martin Del Potro, who broke seven times in a 6-2 6-3 6-0 triumph over Yen-Hsun Lu.

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