A blockbuster quarterfinal between Rafael Nadal and Marin Cilic is on tap for Tuesday at the Australian Open. A more surprising one pits Grigor Dimitrov against Kyle Edmund. Ricky Dimon of The Grandstand and Joey Hanf of Cliff Drysdale Tennis preview the two matchups and make their picks.
(1) Rafael Nadal vs. (6) Marin Cilic
Ricky: Cilic vs. Pablo Carreno Busta on Sunday was better than anyone could have expected. PCB threw everything he had at Cilic and the Croat came up with the necessary answers. On a relatively fast surface, he is once again looking like a slam title contender (just as he did at the 2014 U.S. Open and at Wimbledon in 2017). In my Wimbledon pre-tournament picks, I had Gilles Muller beating Nadal in the fourth round. When the time came, I changed it because of how good Nadal looked through three rounds. I’m not getting swindled into the same mistake again. The world No. 1 is playing well and has dropped only one set through four matches in Melbourne, but Cilic is playing too big for him right now on a hard court. After all, even Diego Schwartzman bullied Nadal around for a brief time on Sunday. Cilic in 4: 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4, 7-6(6).
Joey: The first real test for Nadal in this tournament will come on Tuesday, with Cilic the first player he has faced who has actual weapons that can hurt him. But Cilic, as is often the case, has not looked particularly reliable this fortnight. He has given up leads and struggled to close out matches that realistically should have been routine. And whenever you play Nadal, you have to be willing to go for it on the big points. I think Cilic will keep sets close because of Nadal’s insane return position but ultimately come up short when it matters most. The Spaniard’s serve has looked very good thus far, and the forehand doesn’t seem to be having any problems. Nadal would be smart to use a fair bit of slice and force the Croatian to generate his own pace. This lopsided head-to-head will only grow further apart. Nadal 6-4, 6-7(4), 7-5, 6-2.
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(3) Grigor Dimitrov vs. Kyle Edmund
Ricky: Dimitrov was awesome against Nick Kyrgios, four days after playing down to his competition in a five-set escape against Mackenzie McDonald. Once again heavily favored against an unseeded opponent, the world No. 3 will learn from his McDonald mistake and make sure to treat this match with the respect it deserves. After upsetting Kevin Anderson in the first round, Edmund has done what he failed to do at last year’s U.S. Open: capitalize on a favorable draw. But it hasn’t been easy. He needed five sets to outlast Nikoloz Basilashvili and took a medical timeout for a right shoulder issue during a four-set win over Andreas Seppi on Sunday. This is where the Brit’s Australian summer finally comes to an end. Dimitrov in 4: 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2.
Joey: I’m surprised by this quarterfinal; really thought we were getting another Kyrgios-Seppi clash. Edmund’s journey has been wild; he was literally running on fumes against Basilashivili. He began going for virtually every ball in that match, and he executed the same strategy against Seppi. Unfortunately for him, Dimitrov is one of the most athletic defenders in the world. Dimitrov had to play an extremely high level to beat Kyrgios, and I think that momentum should carry him through this one. While he wasn’t playing great early in the tournament, his confidence is growing. I am interested to see when this match is scheduled; Dimitrov heavily prefers night conditions where the ball doesn’t fly as much. Edmund has been playing the best tennis of his career, but it seems pretty clear his legs not quite there anymore. The Bulgarian will expose that. Dimitrov 6-4, 3-6, 7-5, 6-2.
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Rafa adds more wear and tear in his body by training too much. He need to change that.
Vamos!
The AO jinx strikes again!
How many times 🙁
Rafa has himself to blame; he served so poorly in the second set after breaking serve and then lost the set; if not he has already won this match in three sets! And thats how poorly he plays in this match even though Cilic is playing well.
Exactly, luckystar.
If Fred is going to take the title I don’t want him to beat Rafa doing it.
I’ve lost count of the number of times Rafa has been injured at the AO.
Rafa has to retire,he’s damaging himself more,clearly in severe pain.
I wish he would retire, rather than lose outright.
He retires, was not fit for long matches. He needs to become aggressive to finish is matches quickly.
He needs to hold serve after breaking his opponent’s serve!!! He would have won this in straight sets and might be able to save his knee.
Cut down on the training, Rafa.
Vamos!
Well done Cilic!
Rafa has himself to blame for losing the second set. The AO is not his, he’s fortunate to win it once. Just forget about the AO, and concentrates on FO and the USO. He’s jinxed at the AO. I guess he can’t last a whole season without getting injured, and his injury carried forward to the following season hence the AO was always the slam that he would suffer at. If he played well at the AO, he would then do poorly at Wimbledon.
luckystar AT 12:08 PM.
It wasn’t a knee problem why Rafa retired.
Harmstring injury?
Doesn’t matter whether it’s knee or groin injury; what I’m saying is, he getting injured in the previous season would affect the way he prepared for the next season and we saw it time and again during his career.
Cut down on the injuries and I’m sure he will play better or prepares better for the next season.
luckystar AT 12:24 PM
It matters what injury he has. Because reasons are different.
Nope, as long as he’s injured, he couldn’t train properly and hence couldn’t have good preparation for the next season and that’s all I’m saying.
luckystar AT 1:22 PM,
If Rafa had retired due to his right knee, it would mean that the knee hasn’t healed. It would have been very bad news.
He could not train properly due to his knee and at 31, his endurance is not the same. Humid conditions made it worse for him. Djokovic’s body was also struggling as he wasn’t able to train much either.
AO continues to be very unlucky. I agree that had he served better, he’d won set 2 and probably finished it off in 3.
Exactly VR, that’s the point! Had he not being injured, he would have a proper preparation for this AO, and he won’t be suffering like this. And yes, you get that right, humidity affects his conditions when he’s not that fit to start with.
Humidity really can make one tire easily, and if you’re not used to it, you’ll suffer more than the others. Rafa perspires a lot and that makes things worse for him.
He’s not 20 years old anymore, so he needs to conserve energy and not waste it unnecessarily playing defensively and running all over the place.
vamosrafa AT 12:23 PM,
Djoko’s right elbow was struggling, and not because he wasn’t able to train.
he had the trainer on court in his match against Ramos didn’t he? He had a few niggles here and there. It is natural for players to get muscular issues when they are subject to grand slam format right away without much training.
It wasn’t humid today, though. The conditions were fine. But because of his long injury lay off his 31 year old body was just not ready for the first slam without sufficient preparation. And then injuries like that strike…
Littlefoot, it’s cumulative effect. He was spent on Sunday after the almost four hours match in the humid conditions. He’s getting older now and he may not recover well physically from that match; he was playing ok in the first set today but started serving poorly and playing poorly after breaking Cilic in set two; perhaps he relaxed a bit after the break or he couldn’t hold on physically to continue playing well after the service break. I’m only guessing of course.
I mean we said it last AO that Rafa was physically affected by his long SF match with Dimi; he’s one year older now, not as match fit (due to ill preparation), so it’s possible that he’s physically affected that he lost focus and then lost his serve. He was playing poorly from then on by his usual standard, and that’s before he injured his thigh muscle (?),
I doubt he would have won the whole thing even if he won against Cilic. His body was not ready for such a hard grind.
Yep, watching the way he played, I had doubts that he would get past Edmund in the next round, but to lose by retirement instead of winning in straight sets (he really did have chances to win in straight!) and reaching the SF, was rather disappointing and not a good start to the new season.
Rafa just can’t step it up to play aggressive tennis the way he played on clay or during the Asian swing last season, but reverted back to playing from deep behind the baseline and running all over the place retrieving.
Lucky, he probably wasn’t prepared enough for the year’s first slam. I said yesterday that he pulled out of all previous events for a reason. But I would’ve preferred if he had just lost to Cilic. Retirement isn’t good at all…
As to exhos and Laver Cup. I don’t think we can blame that, since he had a lot of fun. But maybe in retrospect it was wrong that he didn’t wrap up the season last year after winning Beijing. He said after all that the knee problems started already in Beijing. But I guess, he couldn’t resist to keep the year-end No1 position – which is totally understandable, since this chance doesn’t come along every year. But once he wrapped it up he probably should’ve dropped out of the WTF completely in order to start the healing process earlier.
Fed has probably been smarter. He restricted himself and didn’t aim at the No1 position, as he well could’ve done by playing more events in 2017.
Now, he almost seems to be the last man standing at this year’s crazy AO. Right now he is hands down the man to beat.
Fed knew that his back won’t hold up well if he played more events. His back was already quite bad during Montreal, I doubt he felt great at Basel and WTF too.
Fed playing more events doesnt mean he would win more points, in fact it might make things worse for him if he injured his back in the process. People just assumed that had Fed played more, he would get the number one ranking, but they’re not Fed, they won’t know how Fed was feeling about his own body!
Fed is not stupid, if he thinks he has a good chance of winning more and getting to no.1 without risking his health, you think he won’t go and do it?
Fed is wiser than the other three big four guys, in that he won’t want to push his body to the limit. It’s unlike Rafa with his knee issues so often, and Djoko despite his elbow issue, still pushed on in 2016, and Murray with hip issue still played on until he couldn’t play anymore!
Well, that’s what I was saying, Lucky. Fed was wise to skip so many events and not aim at the No1 position, exactly because he probably knew that playing more wouldn’t guarantee him the pole position.
I think, Novak did well to continue despite his elbow problems – at least at first. He would never have completed his Novak Slam otherwise and never won the FO. But he probably should’ve stopped right after RG for a prolonged healing period. Instead he continued until the end of the 2016 season and deep into the 2017 season. That was probably foolish.
I agree, this was the last set, he shouldn’t have retired but he might have been in tremendous pain.
Stanley, that’s not what I meant at all. If Rafa didn’t feel like going on it was the right thing to do in order not to aggravate anything. I meant that a straightforward loss to Cilic would’ve been better to deal with for him and his fans than another injury.
littlefoot AT 1:14 PM,
I wouldn’t mind if Fed were even more wise and and skipped more events.
Lol!
The way Cilic plays, I have doubts that he can beat Fed in the final if it is Fed in the final.
Rafa is doing all the running tonight, not a good game plan. Fed won’t be playing this way for sure.
Rafa has to cut down on events played and cut down on the unnecessary exhos. He’s not listening to his own body and keeps on pushing it to the limit, he’s shortening his career by getting injury after injury and one day the body won’t be able to take it anymore.
luckystar AT 12:19 PM,
I don’t remember that Rafa has played “unnecessary exhos” in 2017 & 2018.
Laver Cup!
luckystar AT 12:37 PM,
Laver Cup was emotionally necessary.
Well, not so much emotionally, I think. Rafa had made a commitment to Roger to play the LC the year before and Rafa honors his commitments if it’s physically possible. He’s a man of his word and as unselfish as it’s possible to be and still be a top tennis player. But he may not feel the need to play LC this year since the thing got such a great start, largely thanks to Rafa.
I’m talking about in future! What’s done can’t be undone! I’d already said enough about the LC in 2017; all he had to do was to plan his schedule wisely last year to accommodate the LC, as he’s obliged to help Fed at the inaugural LC.
Going forward, he need not play the LC if he has played many tour matches during the season.
luckystar AT 1:17 PM,
Your comments (almost?) always sound as if Rafa has (almost?) always done everything wrong…
Yes it’s almost always! Remember 2010? He had that exho with Fed after his busy 2010. Results – no proper rest and recovery, suffered a thigh muscle pull during his QF match with Ferrer at AO2011.
luckystar AT 3:48 AM,
I think than the groin injury Rafa suffered at the 2011 AO had more to do with catching a virus in Doha than anything else. I remeber that he was sweating profusely during his AO matches.
How can a player be so unlucky at a particular event? Lets see if he can be ready for the clay season,doesn’t seem promising at all,it’s so sad 😖
I was busy just checked, Rafa retired my goodness, my over bet will be voided, while other matches will continue.
He should have finished the 5th set, this was the last set.
Fuck you and your shitty bets,you moron.
Are you sure that I am the moron?Calm down, calm down, just chill, I know that you are a useless sore loser in sports and probably in life but don’t act like a brainless Fool who lacks mat, it’s not the right thing to do.
Gaviria please try and hide your stupidity and useless mindset, it’s better that way don’t you think?
We do not need you and your irritating comments today. A true Christian has some sensitivity toward people.
Ramara are you talking to me?
If you are, can u tell me what I said that was wrong?
https://tenngrand.com/2018/01/22/australian-open-nadal-cilic-edmund/comment-page-4/#comment-291931
AO site says hip injury. 🙁 Whatever it was, it was bad. Rafa totally hates retiring, especially in a big match, no matter how far down he is. This was my worst AO nightmare.
Well done Ricky, you called it.
Commiserations to Rafans 🙁 sucks to see him go this way… He’ll come back strong soon 💪🏼
Hey, all Rafafans and all tennis fans. This are very bad news indeed. I have to say that I had a very bad gut feeling. Was just not sure how fit and ready Rafa was in this new season. We will see how bad this really is. But the AO remain Rafa’s unluckiest slam.
Good luck to Cilic and the rest of the remaining players. May they stay healthy!
264 slam matches and 2 retirements in Rafa’s career. The first one came in AO 2010 QF against Murray. He HATES to retire.
VR, I remember that match against Murray well. It was the start of his bad luck at the AO. In 2011h he was gunning for the Rafa-Slam and got sick before the event even started, and then lost totally exhausted to Ferrer in the quarters. I won’t recite the rest of his mishaps at the AO
because it’s too depressing.
Hopefully Cilic will make good use of his win, but I really can’t see anyone beating Fed now. But then again, the AO are crazy this year and nothing is written in stone.
One small consolation: it’s unlikely that Rafa would’ve won the title, at least not when facing Fed, even if he had won today.
Hopefully he won’t be too depressed and be ready for the clay season.
What’s next on Rafa’s calendar?
My sincere condolences to rafans, don’t worry R. Nadal will bounce back.
nadline10 AT 1:07 PM,
Rafa is going to play Acapulco.
A couple of days ago he said he won’t play in the Davis Cup in February (against Great Britain in Spain).
i haven’t have time to watch the match. Can someone fill me in when exactly the injury became apparent. He started out well after all…
Littlefoot this is for you-
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nTbe9x0LpGA
Enjoy 😂.
You can’t resist having a dig at Rafafans, Stanley, can you?
I like your emoji with it’s many little sharp teeth, lol! Very approriate!
My own emojis are all reduced to a small crossed out rectangle for a while now.
I give up, i am dealing with…
I wasn’t laughing at you or rafans, I backed Rafa to win and I also backed the over games.
You said you didn’t watch the match and I posted some highlights for you to watch.
This is how you thank me, no problem, take care.
Hey, Stanley, you know exactly what I was talking about, lol! I really didn’t take your comment all that seriously. But please stay honest, you might’ve bet on Rafa but I’m quite sure you don’t mind that he’s out. Which is fine, btw. I don’t grieve if someone I’m not that interested in, goes down.
But you knew perfectly well that there was no way I would enjoy the highlights, which I could’ve easily found myself btw. I was looking for the kind of info which thinwhiteduke gave me.
But don’t worry, I’m not taking your comment that seriously.
😂👍!
I am honest but sometimes playful, that’s good right?
I don’t know when the injury happened, but after he won that 3rd set tie-break he looked strong. I don’t think the commentators on the broadcast I was watching picked up on anything before the MTO actually happened, nor did they later identify a moment/movement where something went wrong.
Rafa took the MTO after Cilic consolidated on his break halfway through the 4th set. He may not have been moving at 100% right beforehand, but to the untrained eye I couldn’t see anything. After the MTO in the 4th set he didn’t quite look 100%, but he didn’t really look out of the match until the 5th set began. By that point he was noticeably limping off one leg, like his side had totally seized up.
Thinwhiteduke, thanks for the wrap-up!
Cilic was lucky to get out of that match, I would’ve still had Rafa as favourite even at 2 sets all if he were fit, although it was a close-run thing.
One would now think that he’d beat Edmund, although it’s been another poor tournament for the seeds so far, I can’t say that any of them look that safe.
Well, Berdych looked pretty good so far, and while Fed didn’t exactly look invincible, he hasn’t lost a set, yet. Both haven’t really been challenged so far.
Maybe, the tennis gods decided that no one in a hideous pink outfit shall win! The Pink Panthers are all out now.
Yeah, Berdych has looked pretty consistent in a tournament (kinda like USO) where most seeds have lacked match-to-match consistency. Hasn’t beaten Fed in years & has a history of not being clutch, but he came very close last year, and he knows he can knock Fed out at slams.
For me, Fed has looked quite casual thus far, just getting the job done with 1 break sets, a tie-break here and there. Particularly if he doesn’t step it up, or he looks ahead to the semi/final, I don’t doubt that Berdych can beat him. And if he did beat Fed, much as I’m a Fed-fan who’d love to see him get his 20th, I’d be cheering Berdych on to win a major. Always felt bad for guys like Tsonga and Berdych who haven’t been able to grab a slam, but might’ve just managed in other eras.
I’d say it could still be anyone’s slam except Edmund or Sandgren, but even that’s risky given how the seeds have fallen…
I like your comment but I want R. Federer to win it all, he will soon retire, what was T. Berdych & Tsonga doing all this time?
They had countless of opportunities, if the win a slam I hope it’s the French Open.
There’s definitely no question that Berdych should be CHOMPING at the bit to get at Federer and win this title. If he can get through Fed, it will officially be his single greatest chance to win a major of his career. He didn’t stand a chance against Rafa in 2010, anywhere. But if you told him he would have to face either Cilic or Edmund in the final, and then either Chung/Sandgren in the semis if he can get by Federer, I would think he would come out playing against Fed like his life depends on it haha! He’s beaten the guy 2 times before at slams, once when Fed was #1 and favored to win the tournament. Berdych should be thinking, “that guy that I’ve beat before in majors is now pushing 37 years old? I have to win this!”
I’m not saying that Berdych will have that attitude, nor that it will definitely work. But Federer better come out firing against Berdych just like he did last year at AO. There is one thing that cannot be denied- for years now, particularly since Fed started playing his more aggressive game, Berdych has just brought the best out of Fed every time, especially at the majors. Fed crushed him at Wimbledon and AO last year, as well as at AO the year before. Berdych is really going to need to turn the clock back to stand a chance tomorrow, and frankly, he’s going to need Fed to not step his game up like he always does against Berdych in the last 5 years…
You’re right, Kev. Something about Berdych seems to bring out the best in Fed in recent years. Last year at AO, Berdych didn’t play badly, but just got crushed. I’m not sure Roger is capable of repeating that, but I guess we’ll find out soon.
Rafa’s presser transcript is up on the AO website. He really doesn’t know what the injury is exactly but he said “not the hip”. He seems to think it’s a muscle, with the pain high up on the thigh. He’ll get an mri tomorrow and tell us what he knows after that. He also said he “felt something” in the third set but no real problem until sometime in the 4th, he thought while chasing a drop shot.
Well, of course only the mri can tell, but if he pulled a muscle it might not be super serious. These things happen when preparation hasn’t been optimal. It’s super annoying of course since getting ready for the new season will now be even more delayed. If I remember correctly it’s now the fourth time at the AO that Rafa was struck down by a sudden injury in the latter stages of the tournament. His team should analyse why it’s always happening at the AO. At no other slam has he been plagued with these kind of injuries out of the blue. Although it could really be just bad luck…
Ok, tennis fans, I’m out for today. May the future winner really earn the title in a great match and not just be the last man standing.
littlefoot AT 2:30 PM,
Rafa’s new season has started. He has played 5 matches. The next tournament
in his schedule will start on February 26. Probably he planned anyway to rest after the AO.
Of course his season has started. But I doubt that he was fully prepared. That ongoing process might get delayed further now, and we have no way of knowing if he really will attend the next event. Hopefully his injury isn’t that serious and he will show up. It’s encouraging that his pesky knee wasn’t causing the problem.
littlefoot AT 2:50 PM,
You are right that he wasn’t fully prepared for the AO. Rafa has said several times that his knee problem delayed the start of his pre-season training. And that’s why he pulled out of Abu Dhabi and Brisbane tournament.
I think, Rafa will let us know tomorrow how long it will take to recover from his new (muscle ?) injury.
I tried to stay up to watch the match but fell asleep after Cilic won the second set. I woke up after it was over and checked my recording. It was so exciting to see Rafa win that third set TB, but then my worst nightmare happened with Rafa getting injured. It was so upsetting to see this happen to him yet again at this tournament.
I guess that the lack of match play did hurt Rafa. Last year he played a five setter against Zverev and then another five setter against Dimi. He managed to get through without injury and that’s the difference between having preparation and playing warm up tournaments and coming in cold.
I just hope that it’s nothing serious and Rafa can recover soon. Not the way we would have wanted him to start the season.
I feel for Rafa. It’s been one thing after another st the AO. We know that Rafa won’t retire unless absolutely necessary.
I hoped that Rafa could keep on going even though I knew it would be tough without sufficient preparation.
It’s not the news I hoped to wake up to.
🙁
Rafa’s a year older than he was last year. Doesn’t help.
Rafa’s AO woes have been mostly bad luck, I think. Well, the retirement vs Murray in 2010 was bad knees, which had plagued him throughout 2009. 2011 he was very unlucky and caught a virus in Doha. Toni felt that might have led to the quarterfinal groin injury vs Ferrer. 2012 he ran into peak Djokovic and played a “beautiful” match but lost. (Incidentally Rafa is very proud of that match still as well he should be – was one of the greatest hc matches ever). 2013 he intended to return from his long offtime due to his left knee problem but caught a virus late in Dec and could not play any warm ups so he pulled out of AO. 2014 he hurt his back during the warm up for the final. 2015 was a lost cause, suffering from a “mental injury” – he did well to make the quarterfinals. 2016 lost to Verdasco in a 5 setter in the first round! So he’s made four AO finals and lost 3 of them. Three of those finals were indeed “beautiful” matches and I’m sure the fourth one would have been save for his injured back.
In 2009 after that long painful semi vs Verdasco Toni told a despondent Rafa that this would be his best chance to win the AO. Prophetic? Maybe but only Rafa could have beaten Federer, and according to Navratilova’s commentary, OUTLASTED, Federer, who “lost his legs” in the 5th, while Rafa still stood strong.