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Rafael Nadal will be favourite for another easy progression at the French Open when he takes on Pablo Carreno-Busta in the quarter-finals. Join The Roar for live scores from around 11:30pm (AEST).
Update: This match failed to start due to rain. It will commence at 7pm (AEST) on Wednesday evening.
It’s been a long time since we have reached the quarter-finals of a grand slam to see a player paying $17 with bookmakers to win, but that’s exactly what are confronted with.
And who in their right mind would back anyone to beat Nadal at the moment?
The undisputed king of clay is breathing actual fire. He has dropped just six games in his last six sets of tennis, and is yet to even be challenged for a set at the French Open.
He started off on the front foot, although not quite as dominant against Benoit Paire and Robin Haase, before smoking Nikoloz Basilashvili and the seeded Roberto Bautista Agut.
Silencing an in-form Agut was monumental from Nadal, and despite an altercation with the chair umpire mid-match, he never looked like struggling.
His opponent, Busta had an up and down run to the French Open, with a tournament victory where he defeated Gilles Muller in the Estoril final headlining his clay court season.
Of course, Nadal wasn’t playing at that tournament. Since arriving in Paris though, Busta has been in some good form and had to fight seriously hard to get out of the fourth round.
After getting past Florian Mayer in straight sets to open the tournament, he took four to move past Taro Daniel. A straight sets demolition of Grigor Dimitrov was easily his best performance so far, before he came up against Milos Raonic.
Being down two sets to one after a pair of tie-breakers, he won the fourth 6-4 and then had to fight all the way, staying in the match through some difficult periods to win the final set 8-6.
While his form appears solid, Nadal is simply a class above.
The pair have met three times before this match, with Nadal taking all three, including two on clay – not that any of that matters. Nadal could have lost five against Busta and still be the unbackable favourite at his favourite tournament.
Prediction
Nadal is going to cotinue marching straight towards a tenth French Open crown. He hasn’t dropped a set yet and no matter what Busta does, the trend won’t be broken here.
Nadal in straight sets.
Join The Roar for live scores of this French Open quarter-final from around 11:30pm (AEST) and don’t forget to add your own comments throughout the course of the coverage.