In what is sure to be a big-hitting affair, Alexander Zverev battles Milos Raonic for a spot in the Australian Open quarterfinals on Monday. On the other side of that section, a fourth-round showdown features Borna Coric and Lucas Pouille.
(4) Alexander Zverev vs. (16) Milos Raonic
Alexander Zverev will take on Milos Raonic for a spot in the Australian Open quarterfinals. The two men met just twice before, both in 2017. They split the wins at one each, with the most recent coming at Wimbledon in a tough five-set affair.
Zverev faced an inspired Jeremy Chardy in the second round and the Frenchman took the world No. 4 to five sets. The German’s other two matches were routine straight-set victories over Aljaz Bedene and Australian wild card Alex Bolt. He should be well rested coming into face the big-serving Canadian.
Raonic’s road to the round of 16 was more impressive than Zverev’s. He dispatched Nick Kyrgios, Stan Wawrinka, and Pierre-Hugues Herbert. His serve, the life blood of his entire game, seems to be clicking nicely. He has 92 aces in the tournament so far.
Zverev won the Nitto ATP Finals in 2018 over heavily favored players Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer and comes into the Australian Open poised to make his first-ever deep run at a major (his previous best result was a quarterfinal showing at the French Open last year). He will still need to find inroads on the Raonic serve, but he seems to be playing with plenty of confidence.
Cheryl pick: Zverev in 4
Ricky pick: Raonic in 4
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(11) Borna Coric vs. (28) Lucas Pouille
World No. 12 Borna Coric already has two tour-level wins over Frenchman Lucas Pouille. The two men met most recently on the indoor courts of Vienna, where Coric won in three sets.
Like most of the NextGen players, Coric hasn’t yet made a significant run at a major. His best result came at the U.S. Open in 2018, when he reached the fourth round. But Coric has proven his potential; he defeated Federer twice in 2018, once at the Shanghai Masters where he was a finalist.
Pouille enjoyed a strong start to the 2018 campaign, winning Montpelier and then making the finals in Marseille and Dubai. Unfortunately for him, the second half of his season was far less impressive. The Frenchman lost in the first round of his last two tournaments. Pouille hasn’t faced any top players so far in Melbourne, with wins over world No. 70 Maximilian Marterer, No. 56 Mikhail Kukushkin, and wild card Alexei Popyrin–who is ranked 149th and pushed Pouille to five sets.
Cheryl pick: Coric in 3
Ricky pick: Coric in 4
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