Rafael Nadal and Milos Raonic will be playing for the first time at 250-point event–and almost certainly for the last time in the quarterfinals of a 250-point event–when they clash on Friday in Brisbane. Dominic Thiem and Grigor Dimitrov are also in action.
(1) Milos Raonic vs. (5) Rafael Nadal
Nadal and Raonic will be facing each other for the eighth time in their careers when they battle for a semifinal spot at the Brisbane International on Friday night. The head-to-head series stands at 6-1 in favor of Nadal, who is an especially impressive 5-1 at the Canadian’s expense on hard courts. The Spaniard avenged a 2015 Indian Wells loss by most recently prevailing 6-3, 7-6(3) at the Shanghai Masters that fall. They also squared off at last week’s six-man Abu Dhabi tournament, with Nadal getting the job done 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 on his way to the title.
The world No. 9 has not looked back at his first official event of 2017, hammering both Alexandr Dolgopolov and Mischa Zverev in straight sets. But the competition level obviously gets tougher in the form of Raonic, who is up to a career-high of No. 3 in the rankings and coming off a semifinal showing at the World Tour Finals–where he was one point from reaching the title match. Following a first-round bye as this week’s No. 1 seed, Raonic rolled over Diego Schwartzman 6-3, 6-2 on Thursday. Unless Raonic turns in a near-flawless serving performance, he will likely be outclassed from the baseline once again by Nadal.
Pick: Nadal in 3
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(4) Dominic Thiem vs. (7) Grigor Dimitrov
Thiem and Dimitrov will be going head-to-head for just the second time in their careers on Friday. Their only previous encounter came last year on the hard courts of Acapulco, where Thiem got the job done 7-5, 6-2. That was part of a brilliant pre-Wimbledon season for the Austrian, who captured four ATP titles and reached the French Open semifinals before slumping down the stretch. Still, Thiem made his debut at the World Tour Finals and fared decently there with a win over Gael Monfils and competitive losses against Raonic and Novak Djokovic. Well-rested following the offseason, the 23-year-old opened on Thursday with a 7-6(5), 6-3 defeat of Sam Groth.
Dimitrov’s 2016 campaign was somewhat of a mirror image compared to Thiem’s, although the highs certainly were not as high. The 17th-ranked Bulgarian struggled early before reaching the Toronto quarters, the Cincinnati semis, the U.S. Open last 16, the Chengdu semis, the Beijing final, and the Stockholm semis. Maintaining momentum from those results, Dimitrov has advanced this week with routine victories over Steve Johnson and Nicolas Mahut. This should be a high-quality contest that could go either way, but a slight edge goes to Thiem.
Pick: Thiem in 3
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