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2017 Australian Open live scores Men's Singles, 4th Round Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne Gael Monfils vs Rafael Nadal |
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One of the true entertainers on the ATP circuit Gael Monfils will hope to cause an upset in the fourth round of the Australian Open when he plays an in-form Rafael Nadal. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from around 8:30pm (AEDT).
Despite coming into the Australian Open with a higher seed, Monfils will be arriving in the fourth round as the underdog against one of the best to ever step on the court, Rafael Nadal.
Monfils may have never won a grand slam, but the Frenchman, rated as one of the best entertainers on the court for the crazy shots he often plays is in close to career-best form after a semi-final run at the US Open last year.
The sixth seed has a woeful history against Nadal though, only winning two of 14 matches and losing all of their last four, including a straight sets demolition in the third round of the 2014 Australian Open.
While Nadal is an older and more vulnerable player now, he is somewhere back to the best he is able to play and looks in good form.
What will worry Nadal is the amount of balls that will be returned by Monfils, who has a habit of making shots many players on tour would get nowhere near.
The Frenchman’s form is hard to read coming into this fourth round encounter though, given he played in no lead-up events and hasn’t had everything his own way during the grand slam.
Monfils picked up a handy first round win against Jiri Vesely in straight sets, but then was taken to four by Alexandr Dolgopolov, who asked him plenty of questions before hitting the off switch in the fourth, being beagled. Monfils then got the better of Philipp Kohlschreiber but didn’t have all his own way in straight sets.
Nadal, meanwhile picked up his season in Brisbane, where he was favoured from his half of the draw to make the final but fell to defending champion Milos Raonic in the quarter-finals.
The ninth seed kicked off the Australian Open in brilliant form – as good as we have seen in two years as he got the better of Florian Mayer and Marcos Baghdatis, both in straight sets.
His match in the third around against Alexander Zverev was far from easy though, as he was pushed to five sets but held his cool to win it 6-2.
The winner will move on to the quarter-finals and face either Roberto Bautista Agut or third seed Milos Raonic.
Prediction
Monfils will push Nadal with his entertaining style and will probably pick up a set, but Nadal will have enough in the tank to get the job done here.
Nadal in four sets.
Join The Roar for live coverage of this fourth round match from around 8:30pm (AEDT) or at the completion of Karolina Pliskova vs Daria Gavrilova on Rod Laver Arena and don’t forget to add your comments in the section below.
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde