Wimbledon: Nadal, Cilic through to round 4 without dropping a set; Nishikori suffers shock defeat

A ominous-looking Rafa Nadal kept up his bid for a third Wimbledon and French Open double in style on Friday, serving notice he is not be to messed with in his 6-1 6-4 7-6(3) defeat of big-serving Karen Khachanov to reach the last 16. The Spanish fourth seed scorched his way through the first set, threatening to sizzle the parched Centre Court grass with the pace of some of his shots.

He committed only four unforced errors in that set and visibly berated himself when he dropped even a point. The 30th-seeded Russian regrouped in the second set and even had a set point in the third but, under pressure from a barnstorming Nadal, he racked up a total of 35 unforced errors as he overcooked some of his points.

"I think for a while, I played fantastic. The first set and a half I think was a great, great level. I am very happy with the way I played," Nadal said as he came off court. "Then it was a little bit tougher, I stopped a little bit in the legs and he started to hit stronger."

Nadal, 31, won this year's French Open, his 10th title there, without dropping a set and has kept up the pace at Wimbledon as he aims to covert that red-hot clay form to claim his first grasscourt slam title since 2010. With Friday's win, he has now bagged 28 consecutive sets at the grand slams this year -- laying down a marker to his rivals in his quest for a 16th major title. He faces a grasscourt specialist in Luxembourg's Gilles Muller, seeded 16, in the fourth round.

"I need to be very aggressive and very fast with my legs. And very focused all the time," said Nadal as he looked ahead to his next match.

Nishikori upset

Spain's 'Mr Consistent' Roberto Bautista Agut reached the fourth round of a grand slam for the seventh time in his last nine attempts with a shock victory over Japanese ninth seed Kei Nishikori on Friday. The 29-year-old proved too solid for a listless Nishikori, winning 6-4 7-6(3) 3-6 6-3 on Court Three.

"I could not get into my rhythm," Nishikori told a large gathering of Japanese reporters. "It was really hard for me to be aggressive today. In the third set I began to move him around a bit but it didn't last long enough unfortunately. I totally lost my rhythm out there."

It has been a mediocre year for Nishikori who is struggling to build on the promise he showed when he reached the 2014 U.S. Open final, losing to Marin Cilic. After reaching the final in two of his first three tournaments of 2017 he has not made one since and has been suffering with niggling injuries.

On Friday he paid the price for failing to take his break point chances in the first set, especially at 4-4 when Bautista Agut saved one with a crisp forehand winner. The Spaniard broke in the next game to take the opening set. It was a similar story in the second set with Nishikori unable to convert any of the five break point chances that came his way before succumbing in a tiebreak in which Bautista Agut reeled off the last four points.

Nishikori, who has never flourished on grass and is yet to go past the fourth round at Wimbledon, did briefly gain the upper hand as he took the third set. When he broke at the start of the fourth with a running forehand pass, to the delight of his fans, it seemed the match could swing his way but it proved a false dawn.

Eighteenth seed Bautista Agut belted a forehand winner to break back for and delivered another hammer blow to move 5-3 ahead before sealing victory as Nishikori skewed a backhand out. Bautista Agut will face stiffer opposition on Monday when he plays Croatia's seventh seed Marin Cilic.

Cilic yet to drop a set

Seventh seed Marin Cilic swept into the fourth round at Wimbledon with a 6-4 7-6(3) 6-4 win over American Steve Johnson on Friday to end an imperious opening week with a third consecutive straight sets victory. The big-serving Croat took his aces tally to 63 for the tournament as he ended Johnson's Wimbledon run and underlined his own status as one of the main challengers to the established favourites.

Cilic, the 2014 US Open champion, is one of only two people, alongside Stan Wawrinka, to have won a grand slam in the last seven years outside of the game's dominant quartet of Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.

Having reached the final at Queen's in the traditional Wimbledon warmup, his grasscourt game is in good shape and he eased past Johnson with minimum fuss. The Croat took the first set when he broke in the 10th game and claimed the second in a tiebreak After both players struggled to hold serve at the start of the third, Cilic took control before wrapping up the contest when the American dumped a forehand return into the net.