Adrian Mannarino has crashed the party in the second quarter of the Australian Open draw and he will go up against Rafael Nadal during fourth-round action on Sunday. Alexander Zverev and Denis Shapovalov are also aiming for a place in the quarterfinals.
Adrian Mannarino vs. (6) Rafael Nadal
Nadal probably expected to see a big hitter like Hubert Hurkacz or Aslan Karatsev on the other side of the net in his fourth-round match at the Australian Open. Instead, Mannarino took out both of those guys to book his surprising spot alongside Nadal on Sunday. After outlasting James Duckworth in five sets, Mannarino destroyed Hurkacz 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 and then beat Karatsev 7-6(4), 6-7(4), 7-5, 6-4 in a match that lasted four hours and 38 minutes and eded after 2:30 in the morning.
Asking the 33-year-old Frenchman to recover from that struggle and be competitive with Nadal two days later is ambitious. He is 0-13 lifetime against the Big 3, including 0-2 against Nadal (0-4 in total sets). The sixth-ranked Spaniard is off to a 6-0 start this season, with a title at the Melbourne 250 followed by Aussie Open wins over Marcos Giron, Yannick Hanfmann, and Karen Khachanov. All signs point to a complete beatdown on Sunday.
Pick: Nadal in 3 losing 8-10 games
(3) Alexander Zverev vs. (14) Denis Shapovalov
Zverev and Shapovalov will be squaring off for the sixth time in their careers (not including a Laver Cup contest) when they meet again on Sunday. Each of their last two encounters have come in Australia; Shapovalov cruised 6-2, 6-2 at the 2020 ATP Cup before Zverev prevailed 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-6(4) at the same team competition in 2021. That gave the German a 3-2 advantage in the head-to-head series, although Shapovalov has won two of the last three dating back to the fall of 2019.
A serious contender for his first Grand Slam title, Zverev’s fortnight is off to an incredibly routine start. The world No. 3 has advanced with straight-set defeats of Daniel Altmaier, John Millman, and Radu Albot. Shapovalov needed five sets against Soonwoo Kwon in between four-set victories over Laslo Djere and Reilly Opelka. Zverev has been a force at the hard-court majors in recent years (only Novak Djokovic beat him in Melbourne and New York last season) and his path to the second week was much easier than the Canadian’s, so he has every reason to win this one.
Pick: Zverev in 4
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