Open de Australia 2021 The manacor arrives in good condition after overcoming his back discomfort
Rafa Nadal has been planted in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open with his homework done, without giving up a single set, saving energy and overcoming those back discomfort that weighed him down in his first games.
Be the thirteenth presence of the world number 2 in the antepenultimate round of the first major of the season since its premiere in 2007, when it lost to the Chilean Fernando Gonzlez in straight sets.
Nadal has played up to five finals in Melbourne but only lifted the title in 2009, when he prevailed in an electrifying match Roger Federer 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-2, becoming the first Spaniard to win in Australia.
Twelve years later, he has a double challenge only three games away. The first and most important is outnumber Roger Federer in number of Great Slams, as both are currently tied with 20 titles.
Tsitsipas, a tercer ronda!
Exhibition against Kokkinakis in Melbourne of four and a half hours of match.#AusOpen | #AusOpenEurosportpic.twitter.com/gCM78pYDd8
? Eurosport.es (@Eurosport_ES) February 11, 2021
The second is not negligible either and is that Rafa wants to be the first tennis player to win at least twice all the Greats in the open era of tennis. The Australians have already done it Roy Emerson and Rod Laver but before 1968.
Rafa’s first obstacle in this final stretch will be the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, whom I already defeated in the 2019 semifinals by a conclusive 6-4, 6-2, 6-0.
The Spanish and the Greek, aged 22, have met seven times, with a single win for Tsitsipas, which took place in the semifinals of the 2019 Madrid Masters 1000. His last duel dates from the 2020 Masters Cup, where Rafa won in three rounds.
If the manacor passes this first obstacle, a Russian rival is assured in the semifinals, because for their part of the table they are measured Daniil Medvedev y Andrey Rublev in the other quarterfinal.
Medvedev is the fittest player on the circuit according to his 18 consecutive victories. The Russian has not lost a game since he fell in front of Kevin Anderson in the quarterfinals of the Vienna tournament on October 30, 2020.
Since then has won the Paris Masters 1000, the Masters Cup and has led Russia in the ATP Cup. In Melbourne he had a bad drink in the third round against the Serbian Krajinovic, which I ended up beating in five sets after a monumental row with his coach.
.@DaniilMedwed only needed 1hr and 29mins against Mackenzie McDonald to stroll into the quarterfinals 6-4 6-2 6-3
He becomes the 2nd Russian through to the final 8 with Rublev looking to make it 3/3 next up #AusOpen | #AO2021pic.twitter.com/xj2DnCBsB8
? #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) February 15, 2021
Nadal and Medvedev have met four times, with three victories for the Spaniard – the most remembered, the memorable final of the US Open 2019 – but the Russian prevailed in the last precedent in the semifinals of the Masters Cup.
If Rublev gives the bell and eliminates his compatriot, he will not be an easy rival for Rafa, who dominates the talented Russian, a pupil of Spaniard Fernando Vicente, by two wins to zero, the last in the 2020 Masters Cup in their debut in the tournament.
Already in the final -we are going to be optimistic-, Nadal could play it against Novak Djokovic, who has already beaten him twice in the last match at Rod Laver Arena. But the fact is that the Serb has physical problems and is likely to fall before that memorable appointment.
In this case, Rafa’s rival will be Grigor Dimitrov or Alexander Zverev. The other candidate is the Russian Aslan Karatsev, that already has worked a true miracle by getting into rooms from the previous phase and it seems very unlikely that it will reach the very end.
THE RAGE OF N 1! Djokovic got two sets up … But physical pain led him to the 5th set against Fritz
But Nole … VERY NOLE! Pride victory!
Enjoy the #AUSOpen in the channels of @Eurosport_Es available on DAZN pic.twitter.com/uVAwny6qwu
? DAZN Espaa (@DAZN_ES) February 12, 2021
Zverev will be another careful rival for the manacor. In fact, the German has prevailed in the last two games between them after five initial victories of the Spaniard. Zverev won the 2019 Masters Cup and the 2020 Paris Masters 1000 semi-finals, both in straight sets.
As for Dimitrov, the mental factor clearly played in favor of the Spaniard, who has prevailed in 13 of the 14 duels played against the Bulgarian, who only won in the quarterfinals of the 2016 Beijing Tournament.
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