The stage is set for another showdown between Rafael Nadal and Nick Kyrgios, this time in round four of the Australian Open. Dominic Thiem and Gael Monfils are also aiming for a place in the quarterfinals on Monday.
(1) Rafael Nadal vs. (23) Nick Kyrgios
One of the most bad-blooded rivalries in tennis will be renewed when Nadal and Kyrgios square off for the eighth time in their careers during fourth-round action at the Australian Open on Monday. Nadal leads the head-to-head series by a competitive 4-3 margin, with Kyrgios having won two of their three hard-court encounters. They have split a pair of Grand Slam contests, both at Wimbledon; Kyrgios pulled off a 7-6(5), 5-7, 7-6(5), 6-3 upset in 2014 and Nadal got the job done 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(3) last summer.
Kyrgios is putting together what his really just his second impressive run in Melbourne (also quarterfinals in 2015), but it has not been easy. The 26th-ranked Australian followed up wins over Lorenzo Sonego and Gilles Simon by outlasting Karen Khachanov 6-2, 7-6(5), 6-7(6), 6-7(7), 7-6(8) in an instant classic on Saturday night. He will have to recover quickly to face a well-rested Nadal, who has easily disposed of Hugo Dellien, Federico Delbonis, and Pablo Carreno Busta. The turnaround is too quick and the court is not quick enough for another Nadal-Kyrgios battle to live up to the hype.
Ricky Pick: Nadal in 3
Cheryl Pick: Nadal in 4
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(10) Gael Monfils vs. (5) Dominic Thiem
Not too much unlike Kyrgios (even though he does not come with the same kind of baggage), Monfils has the talent to win a Grand Slam but has not yet put it all together. The 10th-ranked Frenchman may never get over the hump given that he is 33 years old, but for now things have been so far so good in Melbourne this fortnight. Monfils is through to the fourth round following victories over Yen-Hsun Lu, Ivo Karlovic, and Ernests Gulbis.
Up next is sixth career meeting with Thiem, who is sweeping the head-to-head series 5-0. They most recently faced each other last spring at Roland Garros, where the Austrian dominated 6-4, 6-4, 6-2. A hard court obviously gives Monfils a much better chance, but Thiem has improved bigtime on this surface over the past two years. The reigning Indian Wells champion recently finished runner-up at the Nitto ATP Finals and he booked his spot in the last 16 here by taking out Adrian Mannarino, Alex Bolt, and Taylor Fritz. Thiem’s level right now is too good for Monfils to suddenly erase his demons from this particular matchup.
Ricky Pick: Thiem in 4
Cheryl Pick: Thiem in 4
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WHO YA GOT?
Nadal will most certainly win in 3 or 4 sets.
Nadal in 5 ,Thiem in four
Kyrgios in 4. It’s all coming together, the level, the passion, the desire. Big recovery day today
Aussie,Aussie Aussie!
Kyrgios FTW. He will donate more money and I will win money.
Rafa and Domi, both in 4.
Nadal is the #1 player in the world and playing too well not to be considered the favorite. But Kyrgios is playing differently in this tournament. I’m sure the bush-fires have motivated him, and gutting out that win against Khachanov was very out of character for him. If he stays focused this match will be close. When he is playing and (especially serving) well, NK simply has too much talent for Rafa to blow him away. If the crowd gets behind Kyrgios, who knows, he could pull off the upset. It would be nice, but I don’t think it will happen. Nadal in 5, maybe 4.
Nadal in 4
Theim in 4
Rafa in three and Thiem in five.
Bring it!
Vamos Rafa!
Rafa vs Nole in final, with Nole winning his 17th slam in one week time. All the rest of matches are simply just for entertaining elimination. No men on earth would concur these top 2.
lol, I almost want to agree with you there! But it would be so nice if Rafa won!
Fognini’s not doing enough here. O from 5 BP opportunities.
If he’s not careful could be looking at defeat no. 2
Sandgren is top 20 in the world, easily.
I agree with Ricky- I expect a damp squib. Even if NK didn’t have an epic 5-setter, I’d pick Rafa. Clearly I was wrong about my original court-speed assessment. The new court and balls play slower, especially at night. I see NK starting slow, and throwing in the towel early when he realizes he doesn’t have it. I guess if he can have one of his ridiculous serving nights where he’s serving 135 mph bombs at like 85%, maybe he can at least keep the sets close. But I doubt that will be the case.
Rafa is straight sets, MAYBE with one tiebreak.
I also like Ricky’s pick for Thiem, except I think I’ll take it a step further and say Thiem in straights.
I think that if anyone could potentially trouble Rafa before Novak, it would be Thiem. He has improved on hard court, especially if it’s a slower one like this, and he has proven he can push Rafa to the brink in best-of-five on slower hard court.
Thiem struggled to get to R4; I really doubt he could trouble Rafa. Monfils may give Thiem a tough test and may even win it!
It’s still Medvedev who may give Rafa a stern test in SF imo; Meddy plays like a Djoko except without the great ROS of Djoko and his consistency.
The worst kind of opponents for Rafa these days are those who drag him into a grinding war – Schwartzman, Djoko, Simon at times and now Meddy too.
Rafa may show too much respect for his opponents sometimes, but the greatest fear he has is still facing Djoko across the net , esp on the HCs, I feel. It seems that Rafa is clueless now on how to beat Djoko on HCs, tried everything but still fail, could learn a thing or two from Stan on ‘how to beat Djoko at a slam, esp in a final’.
I actually picked Med to beat Rafa.I cant see NK doing it unless the crowd gets to him .Zverev-Rublev, 50/50 edging towards Rublev.
Its one of those tournaments where anything seems possible.
Why has Cheryl not posted her picks for these 2..Cheryl please give yoir views
Done. I think NK is going to get a set.
lol you need your mummy to reassure you that dull will win.
Hush now, baby, baby, don’t you cry,
Cheryl Mamma’s gonna tell you the clay courter will win,
Cheryl Mamma’s gonna keep baby cozy and warm …
Nadal in 4. IMO, Kyrgios still doesn’t have the head to beat anyone of the big 3 at Slam(I doesn’t count Wimbledon 2014 against injury prone Rafa).I agree with Luckystar and even go further and say that I am sure Meda will beat Rafa at SF. Rublev will be tougher test for Meda than Rafa. Novak will beat Meda in final in 4 sets.
Thiem – Monfils..I don’y have a clue..Thiem is so good on slow HC, but here he didn’t impress, and struggled too much. However, I still will go with him, in 5 sets. But than, in QF, Nadal will beat him easily.
what are you talking about? Rafa started picking up injuries in the summer USO hard-court swing of that year and was healthy up until that point of the season… kyrgios simply outplayed rafa in 2014 on grass, nothing to do with injuries.
i also now recall his injury in the AusOpen of that year against wawrinka, but he came back like 2 weeks later and won a title so it wasn’t anything serious that hindered him the rest of the season… he won RG that year as well.
Here’s a link to his full season that year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Rafael_Nadal_tennis_season
In 2014 David Ferrer beat Nadal in Monte Carlo; Nicolas Almagro in Barcelona and Djokovic in the Rome final. Rafa lost to Brown just before Wimbledon. Prior to losing to Kyrgios, he lost a set in each of the first 3 rounds. He did not play for months after that and took a year and a half to fully recover from all he’s been through during 2014-2015. Yeah, Nick beat a really in-form Nadal at that Wimbledon…
Still goes in the win column. Ease up on her, NK fans have little enough to cheer about…
Nick should be mentally drained by now and I question his fitness as well, he doesn’t seem a player which takes training (or anything else) seriously enough. If he manages to serve the best he can, he may take a set. More pressure for him than outside Australia won’t help.
Wimbledon last year was a significantly better chance for Kyrgios and what happened there? Sure, Rafa can have a really bad day and anything is possible then, but this does not seem very likely. The night session does not favor any of them.
So, Rafa in 3 or 4 depending on each player’s day.
hopefully Gyros smokes Nudull back to Portugal.
grasshater,
It’s Mallorca dummy! Don’t you know geography? Go troll somewhere else. You are a bore.
👎
Random thought I’m having-
Novak Djokovic has apparently become close friends in recent years with Kobe Bryant. When Kobe visited the US Open last year, he repeatedly said “Novak is my guy.” And just the other day Novak wasnsaying in his press conference that he looked up to Kobe Bryant. I’m wondering what kind of an effect Kobe and his daughter’s sudden tragic deaths might have on Novak. If it has any effect on his game, it could either cause he to be distracted by grief, or it could inspire him more to win the whole thing. I know that different players are affected in different ways when they lose someone close to them. Just something I’ve been thinking about. So sad, though.
Thiem got a real chance at winning AO if he continue playing like this.
yeah, them played unbelievable. To be fair, monfils seemed to have some wrist injury but he just blew by him.
Thiem played an absolutely rock-solid match. Definitely a contender to win this title if he plays like that. This half of the draw is just stacked with talent. Literally any of the remaining players could make the final and it wouldn’t surprise me too much.