Rafael Nadal and Kevin Anderson are going to clash for a place in the Australian Open quarters. Let’s have a look at their run and the H2H.

Nadal

Rafa had a strange run so far. The Spaniard had an outstanding opener  to beat Mikhail Youzhny 6-3 6-2 6-2. Problems did arise in the 2nd round when Rafa had to cope with physical problems just after 40 minutes to beat world no. 112 Tim Smyczek 6-2 3-6 6-7 2 6-3 7-5 after a +4hours battle. The King of Clay was back to “normal” in the following round to dismiss Dudi Sela 6-1 6-0 7-5, but his physical condition remains a mystery for the rest of the tournament.

Rafa seems to feel better to comment “Seriously I feel that I was in terms of legs I wake up in the morning better than what I thought. In terms of, you know, I was still a little bit dizzy yesterday. I think I lost lot of fluids the other night. But in general I was not very, very bad. Happy the way I was physically on court tonight. Obviously happy the way I played the first two sets. Then the third play with more mistakes, but all is part of the process that I am doing. It’s normal to play every day with a little bit more ups and downs when you are out for a while.”

Anderson

Boom boom Anderson lost only 1 set in his run in the first round against Schwartzman. Besides that he had tidy Australian Open so far. Kevin reached the 4th round after beating Richard Gasquet 6-4 7-6 (3) 7-6 (6).

Head to head

Rafa leads Kevin 1-0 as they have played only once at the Rogers Cup in Toronto (2010) when Rafa won 6-2 7-6 (6).

Prediction: Rafa in 4… (if he is physically ok… otherwise we see an upset!)

 

THEIR ONLY MATCH