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The US Open is set up for a cracking second round battle when Olympic fourth place finisher Rafael Nadal faces off against the experienced world No.87 Andreas Seppi. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from around 10:30am (AEST).
Nadal has had some well documented struggles over the last couple of years, and it all came to a head with injury and a third round exit at the French Open.
He had a long break to recover after that though, and it has seemed to work a treat for the former world No.1, coming back at the Olympics to a bronze medal match that he went onto lose.
Still, losing to Juan Martin Del Porto and Kei Nishikori wouldn’t have been the greatest confidence builders for him before then going onto lose in the second round against Borna Coric in Cincinatti.
Nadal is known to get up for grand slams though, and that is evident through his incredible career – simply put being knocked over here would be a shock no matter how his form has been over the last few years.
Seppi, on the other hand has been up and down but at the end of the day he has a stack of experience. Despite having a ranking of 18th at his peak, he has never made it past the fourth round of a grand slam and it’s hard to see that happening here.
Seppi was bowled out in the first round of the French Open, second in Wimbledon and second once again at Rio in what has been a tough season.
His form leading into the tournament has been poor at best, crashing out in the first round of the only tournament he played at the hands of Jan Lennard Struff.
His first round match came against Stephane Robert with a four set victory.
The pair have faced off eight times before, with Nadal winning seven of them. They have faced off twice on hard courts including a second round match at the Olympics with Nadal not losing a set in either.
Prediction
Nadal has been in much better form recently, and it would be a major surprise for him to be knocked out early. It won’t be easy, and experience will count for plenty on Seppi’s side of things, but Nadal to win this one.
Nadal in five sets.
Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of this massive second round match at the US Open from around 10:30am (AEST) or at the completion of Anastasija Sesastova and Garbine Muguruza and don’t forget to drop a comment below.
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde