Rafael Nadal was enjoying another day of dominance, another afternoon of rarely rivaled crowd support.

Then, the match turned. So did the fans.

After watching the beloved U.S. Open defending champion breeze through his first two sets against Nikoloz Basilashvili, the crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium unleashed its loudest pop of Sunday’s fourth-round match, as the 26-year-old Georgian — of Eurasia — earned an unlikely set point and an even less likely boost from an audience that wouldn’t have recognized him if he walked through the food court.

The support hadn’t shifted. The crowd simply wanted its money’s worth. As usual, Nadal provided it.

Following a now-unfathomable three-year absence from the U.S. Open quarterfinals, Nadal clinched his second straight trip to the round with his usual mix of breathtaking shot-making, and physically inspiring play, while pulling out a 6-3, 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-4 win.

The No. 1 seed next will face No. 9 Dominic Thiem, with Nadal holding a 7-3 lifetime record in their meetings. Nadal most recently defeated him in this year’s French Open final, but the pair has never met on a hard court.

“It’s gonna be a tough one,” Nadal said. “I know how he plays. He knows how I play. It’s gonna be an interesting one.

“I need to play my best match of the tournament if I want to keep having a chance to stay in the tournament.”

Nadal looked as unbeatable as ever in his only other meeting with Basilashvili, losing just one game in the match. And again, it seemed like Nadal would cruise, facing a player who had never won a match in Queens before last week and who previously had never advanced so far in a Grand Slam tournament.

But following a 4-hour, 23-minute third-round win over Karen Khachanov, Nadal was tested again and lost momentum after he lost back-to-back games in the fourth set.

The 32-year-old legend — yet to win back-to-back majors at a site other than Roland Garros — then quickly supplied the fans with their new favorite moment of the match, breaking back with a brilliant running forehand down the line that perhaps no other person on the planet could have delivered, triggering a series of fist pumps, and primal screams from Nadal.

If the emotion weren’t unleashed, it could have been confused with any other point, each made to look like match point by the 17-time slam champion.

The playbook hasn’t changed. After 15 years, it hasn’t needed to.

“I have been in this position a lot of times in my career,” said Nadal, who reached the quarterfinals of all four slams in the same season for the first time since 2011. “Now is the moment to make the next step forward, play more aggressive.

“I did a lot of things well during the whole the season. This is the moment to make it happen again.”