An angelic Nick Kyrgios reached his first grand slam quarter final in seven years when he recovered from a slow start to beat steady American Brandon Nakashima in five sets on Wimbledon’s Centre Court on Monday.

With Kyrgios’s bad-tempered Court One victory over fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas still the talk of the town, the Australian was on his best behaviour in front of the Royal Box as he ground out a 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-2 win.

Unseeded Chilean Cristian Garin awaits in the last eight, offering Kyrgios a golden opportunity to surpass his quarter final run at Wimbledon on his debut in 2014.

After the mayhem of Saturday, when Kyrgios was accused by Tsitsipas of being a bully, he let his tennis do the talking against the 20-year-old Nakashima, barely uttering a word in anger throughout a contest that contained few of the fireworks usually associated with the Australian.

If anything, the world No. 40 looked subdued in the opening set and appeared to be bothered by a stiff shoulder.

Two forehand errors at 4-5 gifted Nakashima the opening set as Kyrgios looked in danger of an anti-climactic exit.

But he broke serve for 2-1 in the second set and, after having treatment on his shoulder, gradually cranked up the power to level the match.

Nakashima’s focus was total as he kept his nose in front in the third set and he came within two points of taking the set when Kyrgios again served at 4-5.

This time Kyrgios served his way out of trouble and he turned on the style to race throughout the tie-break.

Kyrgios suddenly went off the boil and he was broken twice in succession as Nakashima took it into a decider but he fired himself up to race away to victory.

Serving for the match, the 27-year-old recovered from 0-30 down and sealed the victory with a silky volley winner.

Rafael Nadal in last 8

Rafael Nadal won his Wimbledon fourth-round match against Botic van de Zandschulp of The Netherlands on Monday to advance to the quarter-finals. The second-seeded Spaniard won 6-4, 6-2, 7-6 (8-6) after Van de Zandschulp waged a late fightback. Nadal will meet Taylor Fritz of the US in the quarter-final on Wednesday.

Garin fightback

Garin showed amazing tenacity to come from two sets and 3-0 down and save two match points as he beat Australian Alex de Minaur in a hugely entertaining five-set slug fest to reach his first grand slam quarter final.

Garin eventually triumphed 2-6, 5-7, 7-6 (3), 6-4, 7-6 (6) after four hours 34 minutes of superb tennis.

The two men hammered at each other from start to finish with a crowd-pleasing sprinkling of classy drop shots and volleys in among the relentlessly accurate groundstrokes and lung-busting chases to reach them.

“I just gave everything I have,” said Garin.“I am exhausted. I went to the net and tried to be aggressive with my serve as well — I think that was the key.”

Rybakina romps

Kazakh 17th seed Elena Rybakina hit twice as many winners as unseeded opponent Petra Martic of Croatia to progress to her maiden Wimbledon quarter final with a 7-5, 6-3 victory.

The 23-year-old Rybakina, who switched to playing for Kazakhstan from Russia aged 19, hit 26 winners while committing five fewer unforced errors than the 80th-ranked Martic to control the match.