Coming off a five-setter against Alexander Zverev, Rafael Nadal will continue his Australian Open campaign against Gael Monfils on Monday. The fourth-round schedule also includes a showdown between Milos Raonic and Roberto Bautista Agut.
(6) Gael Monfils vs. (9) Rafael Nadal
Nadal and Monfils will be facing each other for the 15th time in their careers when they clash in round four of the Australian Open on Monday. The head-to-head series is being dominated 12-2 by Nadal, who has taken four in a row at Monfils’ expense since suffering a 2012 loss in Doha. They most recently squared off last season in the Monte-Carlo Masters final, which Nadal won 7-5, 5-7, 6-0.
If Monfils wanted to avoid the 14-time Grand Slam champion, he almost got his wish. After Nadal made routine, straight-set work of Florian Mayer and Marcos Baghdatis, he needed five sets to survive Alexander Zverev 4-6, 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-2 on Saturday in what has been an upset-filled event. Not too much unlike the ninth-ranked Spaniard, who missed much of last season with a wrist problem, Monfils is often an injury-plagued question mark. The sixth-ranked Frenchman did not play at all this month prior to his arrival in Melbourne, but he has put concerns to rest with convincing defeats of Jiri Vesely, Alexandr Dolgopolov, and Philipp Kohlschreiber. Even though a new, more focused version of Monfils has been on display since the start of 2016, it remains to be seed if he can keep his head on straight for the entirety of a best-of-five date with Nadal.
Pick: Nadal in 4
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Roberto Bautista Agut vs. (3) Milos Raonic
Raonic was the last player in the draw to be perfect on serve–not getting broken a single time. That distinction ended on Saturday when he dropped his third set to Gilles Simon, but the Canadian still prevailed 6-2, 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-3. Raonic preceded that victory with straight-set wins over Dustin Brown and Gilles Muller. Thus continues a solid start to the season for the world No. 3, who beat Nadal in Brisbane before losing to a red-hot Grigor Dimitrov in the semifinals.
Up next for Raonic is a fifth career meeting with Bautista Agut, who is a hopeless 0-4 in the head-to-head series. The 14th-ranked Spaniard is 1-8 in total sets, having taken only a single tiebreaker during a 6-4, 6-7(3), 7-6(5) loss at the Shanghai Masters in 2015. One streak will continue on Monday–either Bautista Agut’s futility against Raonic or his perfection in 2017. He is 7-0 with a title in Chennai and wins this fortnight over Guido Pella, Yoshihito Nishioka, and David Ferrer. Unless Raonic has a terrible serving day, baseline rallies should be kept to a minimum and the third seed will likely maintain his mastery of Bautista Agut.
Pick: Raonic in 4
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Finally, Rafa into his first slam QF after almost two years! Vamos!
So scary!!
lol
phewwwwww no 5-setter. Rafa’s through to the QF! He surely has to improve and he knows it. Raonic will be one heck of a battle. Please rafa, make it to the semis. VAMOS
Huh, Rafa you will cost me life!
Yesssss!
Vamoooooosssss!
Rafa still does not have the level to beat top 10 though.He may still end up beating Milos and others through grit and experience
He’s just beaten a top 10 player, hasn’t he?
Vamos Ricky. Spot on with your predictions.
vmk1 January 23, 2017 AT 12:47 PM
“Rafa still does not have the level to beat the top 10 though.”
Monfils is top 10 …
Vamos Rafa!
Shirelig
🙂 ?
Oh shoot? Guess that is what happens when you stay up the entire night to catch rafa. He needed a break and istomin provided it to him. Hope he capitalises
Four down!!!! ✌ ✌ ✌ ✌ Vaaaamoooos Rafa!!!!
I’ve predicted all four winners for today correctly except that I thought Rafa would win in straights. I think Goffin vs Dimi will be a hard fought battle; Rafa will struggle vs Raonic if he keeps returning poorly.
I watched the Raonic/Agut match, Agut unlike Rafa, hit very flat shots and at times caused Raonic so much problems. However, Raonic was surprisingly so quick around the court, retrieving unbelievable shots and turned the losing score in the first set TB into a winning one for him.
Raonic has great serve and big ground strokes from both wings, very difficult to guard against those shots, I hope Rafa remains calm, at least holds his own serves first of all, and then look into his ROS, taking his chances and not plays tentatively. VAMOS RAFA!!
Rafa’saya 15th slam in next 6 days if Fed is in final. Unlikely for Raonic to beat Rafa since he needs 4 sets to pass RBA.
If Wawa goes thru, fourth slam with 4-0 gs final record.
whats so bad about beating RBA in 4 sets?
RBA when playing Roger in most of the sets do not get 4 games. Being able to break raonic and take one set means something.
I think if Federer plays Rafa the way he always did, then you’d have to pick Rafa of course. But we shouldn’t ignore the fact that Federer is playing considerably differently than when they last played in a slam. He’s coming to the net quite a bit, and winning those net points. Especially since this court is quicker, if Fed plays like he in Basel 2015 but goes to the net even more, then I don’t think it will be as simple for Rafa as we would think. But if Fed gets lazy and stays at the baseline like he always did too much against Rafa, it could very well be business as usual for Rafa… I just hope that if they play, we get a 5-set classic!
That being said, I definitely think it will be a big ask for Federer to get through Stan/Jo-Willy, and if he can get through them, have enough left in the tank to beat Rafa/Roanic/Dimitrov. I agree with you that it’s definitely very difficult to pick against Stan once he gets to the semifinals…
Rafa says in his on-court interview: “After 10 years finally, my girlfriend gets a wild card to come here”
https://twitter.com/AustralianOpen/status/823514353273958400/video/1
😆
Too funny! Love the Courier-Rafa interviews!!
Have not yet watched the match, but very relieved that Rafa won. Roof was closed and that’s usually bad news for Rafa.
Raonic will be a tough match. He’s no longer a serve bot. If the roof is closed for that….!
Ramara (AT 3:00 PM),
No rain expected on Wednesday:
https://weather.com/en-GB/weather/5day/l/ASXX0075:1:AS
🙂
Very funny indeed. Rafa is so cute answering that question about Xisca – wildcard for Xisca, after ten years at the AO.
Anyway so happy that he won in the end. I hope there’s no such blip in his match with Raonic; can’t afford that as Raonic’s serves are so difficult to return and it’s so difficult to break his service game.
Raonic got broken trice today, so there is hope. 🙂
http://www.flashscore.com/match/CUdcIPNC/#point-by-point;1
Rafael Nadal 23-01-17
Rafael Nadal def Gael Monfils 6-3 6-3 4-6 6-4
23 January, 2017
Gael Monfils v Rafael Nadal, R4, Day 8, Rod Laver Arena, 23 January 2017
Photo by: Ben Solomon/Tennis Australia
Q. What does it mean to you to win in four sets?
RAFAEL NADAL: For me means a lot because for me I really start the season playing quarterfinals in a Grand Slam again, especially on hard court after a couple of years without being in this round is a great news.
Yeah, very happy with an important victory against a very good opponent.
Q. You played nine sets in your last two matches. How do you feel physically, given that it was a very hot and humid today?
RAFAEL NADAL: Today was tough. The other day the humidity was less. Even if the match was probably tougher the other day, but today the humidity was much higher, no? The match became little bit tougher.
No, I feel good now. Let’s see how I wake up tomorrow morning. You’re not going to know after finishing the match. You need to wait.
Q. Even though Monfils came back, did you still feel like you were in control of the match, holding serve more easily than him, keeping on top?
RAFAEL NADAL: I am not this kind of person that are that arrogant, no? When you lost the third, you are down 4-2 in the fourth, you are not under control, no. That’s the real thing.
You know that you have a good chance to be in the fifth. 4-3, 30-Love for him. The match was tough. He had chances then. Is true that I had my chances before, but I had some mistakes. He started to serve huge, no?
Sometimes is tough to play against Gael when you don’t know what he going to do. First two sets were a little bit more normal, normal tennis. Then he start to play more aggressive. He start to serve huge and play big shots. He combines mistakes with great shots, no? Make you feel that you don’t know if you have to go for the points or if you have to wait little bit for his mistake. You see that the opponent is playing a little bit more 50/50, you know. So is not an easy way to play.
But I made it. Positive thing, I keep fighting with positive attitude. Finally I played last few games good.
Q. Against Raonic in the next round, you played him in Brisbane, what could be different this time?
RAFAEL NADAL: I don’t know. I don’t know what can be different, no? I think going to be a tough match for me, for sure. Hopefully for him, too.
Yeah, in Brisbane he beat me. But at the same time is true that I have been close. A set up and important breakpoint that I had passing shot, no?
Is tough. He’s an opponent that make you feel that you’re playing with a lot of pressure all the time because his serve is huge and he’s playing very aggressive from the baseline. So going to be a very tough match, no?
But I hope to be ready for it. I need to be very focused with my serve and play aggressive. If I am not playing aggressive, then I am dead, because he plays aggressive. You know finally he going to have chances on the return because he decides to play with going for the shots, so…
Q. You were talking on the court about your girlfriend who came to Australia for the first time. Is it a difference mentally?
RAFAEL NADAL: No, not at all.
http://www.ausopen.com/en_AU/news/inter … 30117.html
Vamosrafa…was rafa that bad ? How much would you rate him today ? What worked and was good and what wasn’t ?
Did not see the match but Gael was always a tricky customer…you all agreed before the match that he is playing well, making unbelievable gets and hitting winners…atleast rafa won in 4 🙂
Reading the comments here anyone would think rafa lost the match. Not a single positive message 🙂
Saw highlights…it was okayish performance
End of 3rd to midway of 4th rafa was passive and monfils caught fire…rest of the match rafa was good.
Rafa not hitting enough fh dtl. ..not sure why..the 4 times he hit it he won the point.He usually goes cc or i/o.
He is standing closer to baseline though which is positive
Not sure if humidity was tiring but yes 3rd round performance was better.however it could be as rafa has played monfils enough and knows what to expect which is not the case with Alexander.Alex is more aggressive than monfils too..
As rafa said in pressure monfils can flick anytime and you never know what to expect. Please note monfils has taken Fed to 5 sets in slams and beaten him a few times too. Fed has himself said when it’s against monfils the match is not always on your racquet.
Let’s be happy Rafa is through to QF. I am sure most of us would have signed up for this before the slam . Now let’s hope he goes higher from here.
@Sanju
Appreciate your thoughts, and yes, I most definitely would have signed for this! To me, Rafa looks like Rafa again. Pep in the step, a gleam in his eye and a smile on his face. He’s competing and he’s loving it.
benito is now following me AND Tenngrand on Twitter. Uh oh!
Uh oh indeed!
@benito Most of us here love Rafa dearly. Those who don’t fear him. We all get nervous and vent a lot. Anyway, tell Rafa from us that he’s made our lives better and more interesting.
Ricky, I told Benny that he should keep an eye on some Rafans here!
I just watched my recording of the match! I have no problem with the comments here from those watching the match live. It’s normal to get anxious and worried and start to have doubts. I did while watching Rafa play Zverev. I don’t think it has anything to do with not being positive about Rafa! I get it! Watching is nerve wracking!
I had tears at the end of this match! Because of the way Rafa turned it around down a break! That was vintage Rafa! Then seeing his reaction is what got me! To see what it meant to him! That was special!
I am over the moon with this victory. The only thing is Rafa having to face Raonic next. Ge is playing with such confidence now. The serve and his overall game. He is #3 for a reason. Rafa knows that he will have to play even better in that match.
One match at a time! Who would have thought that Rafa and Fed would be in the quarterfinals and Novak and Murray would be out!
I am not going to analyze the match now. I just want to enjoy Rafa’s win. They will replay the match today and maybe then I can look st it and think about Rafa’s game. I will say that Rafa’s serve stats have been great in each match!
Well done Rafa!
Mate your bloody soft. Need to harden up. Tears ay lol