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2017 Australian Open Men's singles, quarter-final Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne Park Rafael Nadal vs Milos Raonic |
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In what could prove to be the best of the men’s quarter-finals at the Australian Open, Spanish veteran Rafael Nadal takes on big-serving third seed Milos Raonic. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage of the match from 7:30pm (AEDT).
Nadal might have dropped down the world rankings over the last couple of years, but still sits in the top ten and is showing why during the Australian Open.
After a reasonable start to the year, but still below expectation with a third round exit at the Brisbane International, Nadal has only dropped three sets across the first four matches.
The first two rounds were over in a breeze for Nadal, who beat Florian Mayer and Marcos Baghdatis, before he was pushed to five sets by talented youngster Alexander Zverev.
The fourth round saw a dominant display once again from Nadal as he knocked over Gael Monfils in four sets. Despite losing the third, his serve got him out of trouble a number of times, and he played with plenty of variation in his game.
Raonic on the other hand has one of the biggest serves on the ATP Tour and has been flying after a semi-final exit at the Brisbane International.
He knocked over the dangerous Dustin Brown and Gilles Muller in the first two rounds, not looking under any pressure at any stage and not dropping a set, before losing his first set of the tournament to Gilles Muller.
Nonetheless, he won the fourth set 6-3 in a dominant display before doing the same to Roberto Bautista Agut, but doing it in a much better fashion, taking the fourth 6-1.
The pair have faced off on ten previous occasions and unsurprisingly, Nadal controls the ledger 8-2. Raonic however did win their last meeting at the Brisbane International just a few weeks ago though, so does take the momentum into this one.
The winner will move onto the semi-finals and go in as favourite against either Grigor Dimitrov or David Goffin.
Prediction
Nadal went down to Raonic a few weeks ago, but over five sets the Spaniard will at points dominate and run the Canadian off the court. This match is going to go back and forth, and it’s hard to split them, but Nadal is favourite to advance to the semi-finals and should do so.
Nadal in five sets.
Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of this men’s quarter-final from 7:30pm (AEDT) and don’t forget to drop a comment in the section below.
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde