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 Nadal had withdrawn from the Indian Wells semis due to a knee injury and missed Miami, so he was less than 100 percent at the time.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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WWW?
Nadal and Thiem both in 3.
Nadal in 2, Thiem in a close 3.
Thiem vs Med could be great tennis….Thiem in 3….and Rafa in 2.š»š¾
Well, I agree with Ricky about Medvedev.
But I love the optimism of all the votes for Thiem over Medvedev. Hope you guys are right!
Rafa in 2 or 3
Medvedev 2 or 3.
Well, you and Ricky were rightššš Medvedev seems to be the player of the moment! Your pick of a Rafa-Medvedev final is still possible. Fingers crossed that Rafa makes the date, too!
I haven’t seen the match, so I’m flabberghasted that Medvedev seems to have just rolled over Thiem, who is still the winner of IW after all, where he had to overcome none other than Fed in the final. While Thiem’s speciality is clay, he is not bad at all on slow hardcourt. But Medvedev seems to be on fire.
LOL, Medvedev is on such a roll, I’ll be surprised if either Karen or Sascha can make it a good match v Daniil.
I’ve watched quite a bit of Medvedev tha past couple weeks – there’s no doubt in my mind. I want so very much to see Rafa show him the door LOL!!
It’s true. I’m planning on it! Vamos Rafa! Do it!!
Ha, ha, Medvedev said himself that he is on fire right now āŗ But he also said that there might’ve been something wrong with Thiem who seemed to be dazed and confused for unknown reasons. Medvedev said that he was solid which was enough against this version of Thiem
Oh my, I’ll have look up the post match interview. He appears so polite and harmless – but there’s a smirk lurking – like he’s having us on.
Medvedev is one fiery character, heās quite ill tempered. Donāt be fooled by his seemingly harmless and boyish look, he can be quite nasty.
But, I like his tennis, heās quite a special tennis player, has the ability to change direction at will, has great FH and serve, is quick around the court for his height.
I think itās too much to ask of Thiem, to beat Sharpo, Cilic and then Medvedev. Thiem played on clay for two weeks before coming to Montreal, he surprised me by beating those two guys before meeting Medvedev in the QF.
Agree with you entire post, Lucystar: About Medvedev and his nasty side, his tennis being all around awesome; and today too much to ask of Thiem to beat Medvedev after his run in KItzbuhel, and getting wins over Shapo and Cilic.
Thiem probably needs these wins and the loss to see where he’s at and get his feet under him on HC.
Elizabeth, Medvedev didn’t exactly say that his solidness was enough “against this version of Thiem”. That was my interpretation. But according to an Austrian sports website he said that he was solid today, and that only Thiem himself could clear up what was going on with him on-court during the match. But I guess it means the same thingāŗ And he did say that he is on fire!
hahaha… I didn’t take you words as quotes from Daniil but I did hear his post match speech on ATP radio and he did sound as I imagined and rightfully so: full of himself and straight up confident.
I’ll just get used to him. It won’t be hard. His tennis is what I like.
However I do want to see him more tested.
Montreal is not slow hard court, so Thiem has problem against Medvedev who seems to love quicker conditions. Medvedev loves to play on grass too.
Yes, that’s why I was actually surprised that Thiem won against Cilic and Shapo after having played on clay just a couple of days ago. Thiem can be quite good on hardcourt. But Medvedev is a different number atm. I also give him the edge over Sascha/Karen.
Be focused, be confident, be strong, Rafa!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EBiw6RcXUAIirEi?format=jpg&name=medium
What a dusting 63 61š¤¦āāļø
Poor Thiem.
Looks like Rafa needs to play at Cincy, because heās playing crappy tennis at the moment against Foggy.
He certainly needs more matches on the HCs if he wants to do well at USO. Foggy plays like heās the better HC player than Rafa! This match may finish under one hour!
What happens to the QFs, all so one sided so far!
I’m baffled right now watching with sound off but listening to ATP Radio. Not sure what’s going on with Rafa. Fabio has his usual leg taped but appears to be winning so easily. Where is Rafa? Unreal. FF has the first set.
ATP radio has been calling this match and also giving news of the draw in Cincy. My head is spinning.
Nadal you bozo
Rafa looking terrible in this match. He is letting Fog push him around. I was concerned for this match because Rafa has looked rusty. Fog seems to bring his best when he plays Rafa.
If Rafa canāt beat Foggy on the HC, then he will have no hope against Djoko on the HC. He playing against Foggy may serve as a good gauge of his HC level at this moment, not very positive so far.
Rafa doing better in the second set. Up a break now.
I was surprised when I came on here to see predictions of Rafaās easy win! To me Rafa looked rusty and did not play well in his first two matches and we all know how motivated Fog is when Rafa is on the other side of the net. I feared this would happen, Fog is a bad matchup but it also takes Rafa to play really bad for this outcome…nothing seems to work for Rafa, and with high humidity he is in trouble…
Vamos Champ!
Strange match. Now Fognini has gone missing.
Vamos Rafa
Switching to Osaka v Williams.
Rafa could play better than this; heās just wary of Foggy. He lifts his level in set two and is up a break now.
Rafa canāt afford to start slow against players like Foggy and Djoko, because these players know how to beat him if heās not playing well to start with.
Rafa really needs to win HC titles, big or small, to let him feel confident about his HC game, if not heāll always feel extra nervous facing Foggy and Djoko.
I was also surprised reading the predictions of an easy Rafa win. Rafa has not looked that great so far in his matches. Fog seems to play well when heās up against Rafa. I thought this could be tough. Rafa not in good form and rusty after a lay-off, could spell big problems against Fog.
And I donāt understand Rafa, how come he could serve so well at Wimbledon until he met Fed; and now heās serving relatively poorly on the HCs; whatever happened to his AO great serve??
Itās like once he faced a tough opponent (who had given him hard time in the past), his good serve started to disintegrate! The fear factor?
Convinced Fognini is Nadalās Achilles heel at this point
For real?
Fog has never been and will never be nadal’s achilles heel and nadal has no business losing to him on any court. Monte carlo was an aberration which nadal duly corrected in rome and the french. Nadal is rusty and he neeeds match play and most importantly he must fix his serve if he wants to stand any chance of winning a hard court tournament let alone US open. His current serve wont cut it against dangerous returners like djokovic. It’s simply atrocious
Plus he needs to work on his concentration. It’s abysmal really. he cant maintain concentration from 1 set to the other. plays well in one set and falls apart in the next. If he corrects these things he’ll be fine going forward.
Happy,
Thatās why I made that comment. There is NO way Fog is any Achilles heel for Rafa. Fog got three wins against Rafa when he was in his slump. Thatās only reason Fog beat him. The loss at MC was when Rafa was coming back from the knee injury. He was not anywhere near his best as we saw when he got going in Rome.
Fog has been playing well this year. I think his ranking is the highest itās ever been. But Rafa came into Montreal rusty from his layoff since Wimbledon. Fog can be tricky and if Rafa is not sharp then it can be a contest.
Rafa started playing better in sets two and three. I never trust Fog when he seems to have an injury, but it did appear in the third set that it was bothering him.
Rafa just needs to work off the rust, which he is doing.
Too much respect for Foggyās abilities on court; Rafa should show some confidence and belief in himself; heās not 11-4 vs Foggy for nothing! He just has to remember that (and that he CAN beat Foggy!).
I actually donāt understand why Rafa is so rusty after playing on grass transitioning to the HCs, as itās not that radically different these days when Wimbledon is playing more like a HC tournament.
I mean itās not like he hasnāt lifted a racket for a long time! The movement on the HCs is much easier than on grass (esp slippery grass), donāt understand Rafaās mentality.
Win this set and the next one! There was nothing wrong with Rafa v Evans and Pella.
Vamos Rafa!
But if there is something wrong, I wouldn’t want him playing Medvedev. And Rafa needs his best serving.