World No. 9 Rafael Nadal continued his dominance over Gael Monfils in the fourth round of the Australian Open, beating the Frenchman in four sets, 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. Nadal now has five-straight victories and 13 wins in 15 lifetime meetings against Monfils, recently making use of his sweet control of the court to prevail over the sixth-seeded entrant.
Although Nadal was out-aced 15-2 by Monfils, the latter also committed 64 unforced errors that kept the decorated Spaniard hanging around and eventually eke out a win. Rafa improved his record in Melbourne to 49-10, yet he’d really want nothing more than to win another title Down Under. He only has one Australian Open title to his credit (2009), whereas he has no less than two titles in each of the three other Grand Slam tournaments.
Perhaps Nadal is really due for a bounce-back campaign after an injury-riddled 2016, and he can rightfully prove that with a win over Milos Raonic this Tuesday. He has a 6-2 head-to-head record against the Canadian, who plays like and produced a rather similar result as Monfils in the fourth round.
Giving Nadal another edge is the fact that he hired Raonic’s former coach and tennis great Carlos Moya this season. With that, the 14-time Grand Slam winner will likely benefit from some tkey ips on how to beat his next opponent in the quarterfinals.
After a very slow start, Milos Raonic mustered up a ton of mettle down the stretch to defeat 13th-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut in four sets of their fourth-round matchup, 7-6(6), 3-6, 6-4, 6-1. Raonic simply overpowered Bautista Agut late, knocking in 33 aces and winning 81 percent of his points on first serve.
However, the third-best male tennis player in the ATP also committed 55 unforced errors. But Raonic eventually calmed himself down from the erratic play in the final two sets to advance to the semifinal round this Wednesday. He’s set to take on another Spaniard in Nadal, who’s legacy is enough to intimidate any opponent on court.
Then again, and in spite of Nadal’s better record over him as mentioned earlier, Raonic has become a much improved challenger in recent years, having won two of their last three meetings. The 22-year-old even got the better of Nadal just a couple of weeks back in Brisbane – also in the quarterfinal round of that tournament and in straight sets all the more.
Apart from that, Raonic’s performances have gradually improved in each of his last couple of visits to Melbourne. He made it as far as the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in 2015 and went as deep as the semis last year, so there’s plenty of reason to believe that he’ll bust on through to the final round this week if that trend was to continue.
Writer’s Prediction
After going the full five-set distance, Raonic (+110) advances to his third-consecutive Australian Open semifinal.
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