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World No. 2 Rafael Nadal has kept his Australian Open title defence alive, defeating the dangerous No. 27 seed Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-4 6-2 2-6 7-5 at Rod Laver Arena.

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The feature night match on Friday night looked set to be a whitewash as Nadal raced to a two-sets-to-love lead. But Kohlschreiber ensured a competitive contest, stunning the Spaniard in the third set with high-voltage tennis and very nearly snaring the fourth before Nadal proved too strong.

Nadal’s win sets up a fourth-round showdown with giant-serving Croat Ivo Karlovic, who also won in four sets on Friday night, defeating compatriot and No.24 seed Ivan Ljubicic.

Nadal believed there were aspects of his game that could be improved in subsequent matches.

“Everybody have not very good days,” he said.

“I think I played much better the fourth set than the rest of the sets. The second sets, few moments I played well, too. But the first set and the third, I played bad.

“I need to play a little bit more aggressive for next matches … play a little bit longer with the forehand and backhand, and that's it. Play more aggressive and longer; everything is easier like that.”

Nadal was challenged on serve early, facing three break points across his first two service games. He saved all of them and proceeded to break Kohlschreiber in the fifth game.

An epic eighth game – featuring four deuces – saw Kohlschreiber fail to convert four break points thanks to the Spaniard repeatedly serving himself out of trouble. Mentally buoyed, Nadal eventually closed out the set in the 10th game.

He continued his strong form into the second set, breaking immediately on his way to a 2-0 lead. Kohlschreiber threatened to break back in the sixth game, but the No. 2 seed held firm to save to break points and maintain his ascendency.

All was travelling well for Nadal when he closed out the second set with an outrageous running forehand winner from outside the doubles sideline that curved sharply to land on the line.

“I like this shot, running with the passing shot with my forehand,” Nadal said. “The point that give me the second set, outside the net, yes, was one of the best forehands in my life probably.”

Brilliant as it was, Nadal’s outrageous forehand seemed to jolt Kohlschreiber into action. After holding in the opening game of the third set, he broke in the second game and consolidated the break to lead 3-0. He also got fired up when Nadal walked to inspect a ball mark on the court left by Kohlschreiber’s serve before challenging the call, complaining vehemently to umpire Steve Ulrich.

Channeling his anger positively, the German staved off three break points in the seventh game to lead 5-2 and capitalised on a sloppy service game by Nadal – littered with uncharacteristic errors – to clinch the set.

The fourth set went on serve until the seventh game. Here, Nadal appeared to gain a pivotal break, smacking a wonderful running forehand passing shot around a stunned Kohlschreiber, and pulverising a mid-court ball for a winner to move ahead 4-3. It all appeared to be over.

Kohlschreiber surprised everyone with his ability to overcome that seemingly-insurmountable setback, saving a game point on his way to snatching back the break of serve.

At 5-5, the German played a wasteful game, committing four errors to hand Nadal another break of serve. This time, the Spaniard took advantage of it, confidently serving out the match in three-and-a-half hours.

Although fairly evenly matched, it was Kohlschreiber’s unforced error count that hurt him; in a bid to keep the rampaging Nadal at bay, the German went for broke and wound up committing 58 errors to Nadal’s 38.