Nadal ends q-final drought
Ex-No. 1 reaches Grand Slam last eight for the first time since 2015 French Open
Rafael Nadal returned to the Grand Slam big time by weathering a furious Gael Monfils fightback to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals yesterday.
The 14-time Grand Slam champion defeated the sixth-seeded Monfils 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 on Rod Laver Arena in almost three hours and will play Canada's world No. 3 Milos Raonic in the quarter-finals.
It was a gutsy effort from the never-say-die Spaniard, who was down a service break with a fifth set looming before he broke the Frenchman twice to clinch victory.
Nadal, who hasn't contested a Grand Slam quarter-final since the 2015 French Open, has reached the last eight in Melbourne for the ninth time.
"I'm very happy being in the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam after a couple of years without being there," he said.
"I start the season playing quarter-finals in a Grand Slam again, especially on hard court after a couple of years without being in this round which is great news."
It was Nadal's first win over a top-10 player at a Grand Slam since he defeated world No. 2 Novak Djokovic to win the French Open title in 2014, his last Major win.
"Gael is a special player. He is able to play unbelievable shots. It is a pleasure to see him in the top rankings," Nadal said.
MISTAKES
"Sometimes, it's tough to play against Gael when you don't know what he's going to do. He combines mistakes with great shots."
Nadal will go into his Australian quarter-final with a 6-2 record over Raonic in their previous meetings.
"He's an opponent that makes you feel that you're playing with a lot of pressure all the time because his serve is huge and he's playing very aggressive from the baseline," Nadal said.
Monfils was broken in his opening service game as Nadal went on to take the first set in 46 minutes.
Nadal lost his service in the sixth game but broke the unpredictable Frenchman three times to open up a two-set lead and was closing in on a straight-sets victory.
But Monfils fought back, breaking Nadal in the ninth game and saving three break points in serving it out to trail 2-1.
Nadal began to struggle in the fourth set as Monfils fought off two break points and broke the Spaniard in the next game with a net cord on one of his three break points.
But Nadal fought back, breaking the Frenchman with a marvellous backhand winner to level at 4-4 before holding serve to 5-4.
Nadal then got to his first match point in Monfils' next service game, which was saved.
On a second match point, the Frenchman sent his backhand narrowly wide to put Nadal through to the next round. - AFP
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