Rafa Nadal and Fabio Fognini are all set to clash for the fourth time this season in the third round of US Open.
Nadal defeated Diego Schwartzman 7-6(5), 6-5, 7-5 in his second round fixture, the Spaniard struggled to dominate his Argentine opponent, while Fabio Fognini beat Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 without much struggle.
Fognini has never been a match for Rafa, prior to this season. But the Italian took new strides this year, against a struggling Nadal and defeated him in Rio and Barcelona. Rafa took his revenge in the Hamburg final later in an epic thrilling contest. These two have really taken their games to another gear against each other this year.
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All the three meetings were on clay, today they’ll battle on the American cement and it’ll be interesting to see how a mediocre Nadal- according to his own standards- strategizes his game against Fognini. It will be there second meeting in a Grand Slam, Rafa leading their H2H 5-2.
Nadal is looking to revive his career, having failed to make any significant impact in the last four slams, he is yet to bring out his best since his return from the injury. Beating Fognini can really fillip Rafa’s hope to go deep into the second week.
Fognini will look to advance to next round at Flushing Meadows, the Italian has never been past the third round at NYC and he is up against a 14-time Grand Slam Champion, despite beating his opponent recently, he’d hope of something special- beating Nadal at Masters and beating him in best of 5 is a different thing altogether and he knows this better than anyone else.
Predictions? Rafa runs away in four!
Images: livetennis and sportinglife
