Rafael Nadal is the only man capable of beating Novak Djokovic: Wilander
The seven-time Grand Slam winner Mats Wilander feels confident about Rafael Nadal's chances to go all the way at the Australian Open. The Spaniard is yet to drop a set in the tournament so far, and Wilander believes Nadal can be a serious threat for Djokovic. "He’s probably the only man capable of beating Novak in the draw," the Swede said on Eurosport.
"It’s difficult to know with (Stefanos) Tsitsipas and (Frances) Tiafoe because they are so young - I just know when [Boris] Becker came through; Nadal won the French Open in 2005; the year [Roger] Federer beat [Pete] Sampras at Wimbledon; the year I won the French beating four of the top six players in the world – we’ve already seen with Tsitsipas the improvement he’s made from the first round to the fourth. He could take another leap. It’s unpredictable because they are heading in to the unknown, and so are we. It’s clear that tennis-wise, they’ve got the ability, and mentally to over-achieve – the questions is: how far can they go? Nadal is the obvious man to make it through from this side of the draw but Tsitsipas could pull through, you never know. Djokovic has some potentially physical matches against (Kei) Nisihikori and (Milos) Raonic and then faces Tsitsipas in the final who’s playing flashy and the crowd is going nuts? I don’t think Djokovic is as invincible to the locker room as we think he is. They’ve seen him lose to (Karen) Kachanov, (Alexander) Zverev, (Roberto) Bautista Agut and they don’t care if it’s the majors.”
Nadal will play Tsitsipas while Djokovic will play Lucas Pouille in the men's singles semi-finals on Friday.
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from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2RNymdm
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