Tennis veteran Rafael Nadal did not let Nick Kyrgios slow him down in his triumph this year.

The Australian Open champion won the tournament in Indian Wells on Thursday (local time) 7: 6 (7: 0), 5: 7, 6: 4 against the deeply frustrated Australian and advanced to the semifinals.

Kyrgios gave up the first set after a temporary lead at the end with a penalty point because he made a verbal mistake against a spectator.

After the end of the game, he threw his racket so hard on the ground that it flew across the field in a high arc.

A ball boy ducked away, afraid of getting hit.

Kyrgios denied any intention, the racquet had unfortunately jumped away after impact.

"I'm human, things like that happen," said the 26-year-old, who has often been punished for his emotional outbursts.

Kyrgios apologized to the ball boy, and he spread a corresponding dialogue via Twitter.

"Not every day against his idol"

After the 19th success in his 19th match this year, the 35-year-old world number one Nadal now meets his young compatriot Carlos Alcaraz in a duel of generations.

The 18-year-old eliminated last year's British winner Cameron Norrie 6: 4, 6: 3.

"I think I played well at times," said Nadal, "It's difficult to play against him because he changes the momentum of the point very quickly and his serve is huge, especially the first serve."

After his next coup, Alcaraz was looking forward to the first Spanish semi-final in tournament history.

"It's hard to play against Rafa but at the same time I will enjoy the moment and the game.

It's not every day that you play against your idol," he said.

The Greek Maria Sakkari and the Spaniard Paula Badosa advanced to the women's semifinals.

Sakkari won 7:5, 6:4 against Jelena Rybakina from Kazakhstan, defending champion Badosa won 6:3, 6:2 against the Russian Veronika Kudermetowa.

As expected, three-time Grand Slam tournament winner Angelique Kerber is leading the German tennis squad for the game in the Billie Jean King Cup in Kazakhstan.

The former number one in the world belongs to the team like Andrea Petkovic and Laura Siegemund as well as Anna-Lena Friedsam and Jule Niemeier, as the German Tennis Association announced on Friday.

The qualifier for the final week of the team competition, formerly known as the Fed Cup, will be played on clay on April 15-16 in the Kazakh capital of Nur-Sultan.

The final week increases from November 8th to 13th.

If the German women lose in Kazakhstan, they have to compete in a relegation duel to stay in the class.

Last year, the team was eliminated in the group stage of the final week.

For this year's edition, the Germans are seeded in sixth place.

However, the opponents have two top 50 players in their team in Yelena Rybakina (20th) and Julia Putintseva (47th).

Kerber is currently 16th. Petkovic is number 60 in the world, Siegemund has slipped to 202nd place due to her long injury break.

A few days ago at the tournament in Indian Wells, Kerber confirmed that he was planning to take part in the team competition again, but also wanted to take into account the development in connection with the war in Ukraine when making his decision.

Kazakhstan is a southern neighbor of Russia.