Rafael Nadal has stepped up his campaign for a second Australian Open title, reaching the last eight with a comfortable win over Italian 16th seed Fabio Fognini on Rod Laver Arena.
Key points:
- Rafael Nadal has made a strong start to the second week of the Australian Open, earning a straight sets win over Fabio Fognini in the fourth round
- He will now face either Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas or Italy’s Matteo Berrettini for a place in the semi-finals
- Nadal has won the Australian Open only once, but he has now made the quarter-finals of the tournament 13 times
Fognini, who took eliminated Australia’s last men’s hope, Alex de Minaur, in the previous round, found Nadal a far tougher proposition — the Spaniard advanced 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 in just two hours and 16 minutes.
Fognini produced more winners than his opponent — 32 to 24 — but his inability to repeat the consistency of his play against de Minaur proved a big problem.
Nadal has had question marks over his fitness this summer, but he appeared to move easily as he dominated the latter part of the match against his Italian opponent.
The win puts him in the quarter-finals at Melbourne Park for the 13th time.
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Nadal is seeking to win the Australian Open for a second time, which would help him break the men’s record for singles grand slam titles, with a 21st major victory.
He will now face Greek fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, who advanced without playing when ninth seed Matteo Berrettini withdrew ahead of their scheduled night match.
Berrettini had received medical attention for an abdominal strain during his third round win over Russia’s Karen Khachanov.
However he was unable to overcome the injury, giving Tsitsipas a straight path to the last eight.
Nadal had a brief period of concern when he dropped serve in the second set to trail 4-2, but he rallied straight away, as Fognini made consecutive errors to hand the break straight back.
The second seed then reeled off the next three games to take the set 6-4, and Fognini rarely threatened in the must-win third set to bow out of the tournament.
Nadal had stayed back largely in the opening set, but he was drawn to the net more and more as the match went on, winning 12 of 15 points for the match when he came forward.
Fognini had caused plenty of problems for de Minaur on serve in the third round, but Nadal won 77 per cent of points when he got his first serve in, and 69 per cent of points on second serve.
The Spanish superstar had asked for a large fan to be brought to courtside as he coped with warmer conditions in Melbourne on Monday.
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“Today has been very humid, warm. But the conditions are quicker during the day. I honestly like [it] a little bit more,” he told Channel Nine after the match.
“For me it’s a little bit better playing during the day. Normally I like the ball flying a little bit faster on there. But I need to adapt to every single condition. That’s why I am here, to try to be ready for every condition.”
The forecast for Melbourne has temperatures rising from 24 degrees Celsius to 31 degrees tomorrow and 32 in time for Nadal’s next match on Wednesday.
Russians advance in men’s draw
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Daniil Medvedev stormed into the quarter-finals for the first time in his career.
He extended his winning streak to 18 matches with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 fourth-round win over unseeded American Mackenzie McDonald on Margaret Court Arena.
Fourth seed Medvedev had been pushed to the limit in his third-round victory over Filip Krajinovic, but there was no such trouble on Monday as he booked a last-eight meeting with countryman Andrey Rublev.
The seventh-seeded Andrey Rublev advanced when his 24th-seeded opponent Casper Ruud was forced to retire because of injury.
Rublev was leading 6-2, 7-6 (7/3) when Ruud withdrew from the match.
Medvedev and Rublev have joined countryman Aslan Karatsev in the quarter-finals to create history. It is the first time in the open era three Russians have made the last eight in the men’s draw at a major.
ABC/AAP
