In three of the four quarterfinals at the Montreal Masters, the top-eight seeds have held to form. The result is a showdown between Rafael Nadal and Fabio Fognini, while Dominic Thiem runs into a red-hot Daniil Medvedev on Friday.
(1) Rafael Nadal vs. (7) Fabio Fognini
Nadal and Fognini will be squaring off for the 16th time in their careers when they clash in the Rogers Cup quarterfinals on Friday night. The head-to-head series stands at 11-4 in favor of Nadal, but Fognini dominated their most recent encounter 6-4, 6-2 this spring in Monte-Carlo to end a six-match losing streak against the Spaniard. Nadal had withdrawn from the Indian Wells semis due to a knee injury and missed Miami, so he was less than 100 percent at the time. That is no longer the case, as the world No. 2 triumphed again at Roland Garros, reached the semifinals at Wimbledon, and so far in Montreal has defeated Dan Evans and Guido Pella in straight sets.
Fognini punched his ticket to the last eight by making similar work of Tommy Paul and Adrian Mannarino. The Italian is up to No. 11 in the world and firmly in contention for a London spot, but his 23-15 record for the season is still unspectacular. A much different Nadal will be on display in this one, and he will be eager to avenge what transpired in Monte-Carlo.
Pick: Nadal in 2
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(2) Dominic Thiem vs. (8) Daniil Medvedev
Just about the only thing that could be going better for Medvedev right now is if he had defeated Nick Kyrgios in the Washington, D.C. final last weekend instead of finishing runner-up. But no matter; the 10th-ranked Russian still produced a stellar result in the district and it is full steam ahead for him in Montreal. Medvedev has improved to an awesome 36-15 this year with straight-set victories at the expense of Kyle Edmund and Christian Garin.
Up next for the eighth seed on Friday is a third career meeting with Thiem, who leads the head-to-head series 2-0. However, their only previous hard-court collision went to a third-set tiebreaker (St. Petersburg in 2018) before Thiem prevailed in more routine fashion on his preferred clay-court surface (Barcelona this spring). The fourth-ranked Austrian is coming off a clay-court title in Kitzbuhel and he has done well to pick up his first-ever Rogers Cup wins over Denis Shapovalov and Marin Cilic. But Medvedev, who has dropped a mere nine games through two matches, is in far superior form compared to those two players.
Pick: Medvedev in 2
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