The Fourth Round of the Australian Open, taking place in Melbourne, has opened up with world number nine Rafael Nadal making it to the quarter-finals.
The Spaniard has reached the last eight for the first time in two years by beating French player Gael Monfils 6-3 6-3 4-6 6-4.
With Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic already out of the competition, Nadal now stands as a concrete contender in the run up to winning the slam.
He will now have to face Canadian Milos Raonic, who has earlier taken over his Spanish opponent Roberto Bautista Agut 7-6 (8/6) 3-6 6-4 6-1.
The bottom half’s other quarter-final will pitch Belgium’s David Goffin against Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.
Goffin beat Dominic Thiem 5-7 7-6 (7/4) 6-2 6-2 while Dimitrov knocked out Denis Istomin 2-6 7-6 (7/2) 6-2 6-1.
Tomorrow Melbourne Park will host the first two quarter-finals. Mischa Zverev will be claiming his access to the last four against world number 17 Roger Federer, while Stanislas Wawrinka will meet French player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Today has also seen Serena William succeeding over Barbora Strýcová 7-5
6-4. She will now have to challenge British player Johanna Konta at the quarter-finals, after the latter beat Ekaterina Makarova 6-1 6-4.
Their showdown is set to be on Wednesday January 25th. Wednesday’s other quarter-final will see Croatian Mirjana Lucic-Baroni against Karolina Plíšková.
The remaining two quarter-finals feature Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova against Venus Williams and Coco Vandeweghe versus Garbiñe Muguruza. Both matches are scheduled for tomorrow, Tuesday January 24th.