World No. 1 seed, Rafael Nadal not only dominated the court at the Australian Open quarter-finals open, but the nine-time Grand Slam singles title holder fired strong shots against Croatian Marin Cilic Monday, which Nadal himself claimed, the world has never seen before.

Fresh from the dogfight against Australian teen Bernard Tomic over the weekend, the 2008 Olympic gold medalist did not make everything easy for Cilic, who, as noted by the Agence France Press ‘struggled throughout the game and double-faulted on matchpoint’ before he was forced to succumb to Nadal at 6-2, 6-4, 6-3. Cilic fought Nadal at Rod Laver Arena for 2 hours and 31 minutes.

Nadal described the evening’s game ‘perfect’. According to AFP, Nadal said with smile, “I didn't sweat as much tonight…"Two days ago I was sweating like crazy and I felt tired, but today is the first day that I felt perfect physically."

Nadal appeared ‘rattled’ and ‘worried’ based on the observations made by fellow tennis players while responding to the games set by Tomic. The 18-year old Queenslander, who although was defeated has earned the respect of fellow Australian aces after the match and is seen as the “emerging future star of tennis’.

Following his victory over Cilic, Nadal now moves to 25 consecutive Grand Slam match victories. The 2010 US Open Champion is recorded with the same runs as tennis great aces like Jimmy Connors in the 1970s and Pete Sampras in the 1990s. He came just few streaks shorter than Australian great player Rod Laver, 29 and Roger Federer, 27.

On Wednesday, Nadal faces David Ferrer and when he wins the match, which is the first-all-Spanish quarter-final in 14 years gives the 1st seed the chance to be the first holder of four major titles in more than three decades.