TennisSection previews the 2021 Monte-Carlo Masters as Rafael Nadal (3) meets Andrey Rublev (6) in the Quarter-finals on Friday, April 16th 2021.
Will Andrey Rublev finally get a victory over his lifetime idol Rafael Nadal on the King of Clay’s best surface? Will Rafael Nadal continue to demolish his opponents as he has done in his first two matches here at the 2021 Monte-Carlo Masters? Both players have put on extremely solid performances here in Monaco, but only one will make their way to the Semi-finals. Who will it be?
Andrey Rublev put on a very solid performance against the always tough Roberto Bautista Agut in the Third Round, beating the Spaniard in 3 sets 7-6(2)/5-7/6-3. Andrey Rublev is really good on clay which most people would not expect, but he has also won some big titles on this surface, such as the Hamburg Open. Rublev is able to move even faster around the court in these conditions, and he will want to continue improving his game on clay so he can challenge in these big tournaments for the titles. Rublev will be very confident in his game after his performance against RBA on Thursday, but he will also know he now meets the best clay-court player of all time, and his idol, Rafael Nadal in what will be the biggest match of his career on this surface in terms of stature.
Rafael Nadal put on an extremely dominant display in his Third Round match against Grigor Dimitrov, beating the Bulgarian in straight sets 6-1/6-1 in just 55 minutes! Dimitrov is a player who is very experienced, but Nadal just made him look like he did not know how to play tennis. Grigor is now 1-14 against Rafael Nadal and blamed the match being so short on him having a toothache. Rafael Nadal will be very happy with that performance as he was able to show everyone how dominant he still is on this surface and that he is going to destroy everyone in his way as he looks to win the title here at the 2021 Monte-Carlo Open. Will Rafael Nadal crush Andrey Rublev or will the upset be on the cards?
Rafael Nadal and Andrey Rublev have met 2 times before, with Rafael Nadal leading the head to head 2-0. The last time they met was at the end of 2020 at the Nitto ATP Finals where Nadal won in straight sets 6-3/6-3. Nadal has not lost a set to Rublev and has always dominated their encounters. Their prior encounters were on hard courts, and now that we are on the clay courts of the 2021 Monte-Carlo Masters, I think Andrey Rublev will stand even less of a chance than he did in his prior two encounters. Andrey will know that this is his idol and that this is his best surface, and he will know that he will have a mighty task at hand to cause the shocking upset. All of this will wear his confidence down, and will allow Nadal to dominate here and win in straight sets.
Free Tennis Pick and Prediction: Rafael Nadal in Two Sets.
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