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13th seed Roberto Bautista Agut will be looking to reverse history and cause a major upset when he takes on Milos Raonic in the fourth round of the Australian Open. Join The Roar for live scores from around 6pm (AEDT).
Agut has been one of the steady improvers on the ATP tour over the past couple of years, arriving at the Australian Open as the 13th seed.
Now at 28 years of age, the Spaniard is entering his prime and has looked the goods in both the leadup to the first grand slam of the year, and during the first three rounds of the Aussie Open.
Starting the season in Chennai, he blitzed through to win the final against Daniil Medvedev in straight sets, only dropping a single set for the entirety of the tournament.
The three rounds so far at the Australian Open have seen Agut drop only a single set, last round against David Ferrer after going straight past Guido Pella and Yoshihito Nishioka.
It means Agut has won 17 of 19 sets so far and is in dominant form, but he is yet to play someone of Raonic’s class.
Raonic meanwhile, has one of the biggest serves in tennis and after his first grand slam final at Wimbledon last year, going down to Andy Murray has continued to skyrocket through the rankings to where he sits now, at No.3.
The Canadian kicked off his season in Brisbane, trying to defend the crown he won in 2015 but fell to eventual champion Grigor Dimitrov in the semi-finals.
He hasn’t shown anything except near perfection so far in Melbourne though, blazing past a pair of dangerous opponents in the first round – Dustin Brown and Gilles Muller – before beating Gilles Simon in four sets last round.
The pair have played on four previous occasions, with Raonic only dropping a single set against the improving Agut, who has moved up the seedings over the past few years.
Despite that, all of their matches have come in the last two years and Raonic has never really been fazed by the challenge Agut presented, three of those matches coming on the hard court.
The winner will advance to the quarter-finals and take on either Gael Monfils or Rafael Nadal who play on Rod Laver Arena as the final match on Day 8.
Prediction
Raonic has been dominant in all their past meetings and should be again here, being in some fantastic form. Agut is in good form himself, but hasn’t played this level of player yet.
Expect Raonic’s big serve to get him through.
Raonic in four sets.
Be sure to join The Roar for live scores of this match from around 6pm (AEDT) or at the completion of Sam Groth and Chris Guccione vs Marcus Daniell and Marcelo Demoliner and don’t forget to add a comment below.
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde