MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Rafa Nadal remained on the right track for a males’s file twenty first Grand Slam title after profitable a battle of left-handers in opposition to Adrian Mannarino 7-6(14) 6-2 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open on Sunday.
The solely former champion left in the boys’s draw, 2009 winner Nadal is tied on 20 majors with injured Roger Federer and nine-times Melbourne Park winner Novak Djokovic, who was deported from Australia earlier than the match started.
Mannarino had misplaced each his earlier conferences in opposition to Nadal and got here into the competition after a demanding third-round victory over Russian Aslan Karatsev in a match that lasted 4 hours and 39 minutes.
And after an intense opening set, which included a 30-point tiebreaker and lasted 81 minutes, the 69th-ranked Frenchman wilted underneath the blazing afternoon solar on the Rod Laver Arena as Nadal sealed the win with an ace on his first match level.
The former world primary will subsequent meet both German third seed Alexander Zverev or one other left-hander in Denis Shapovalov of Canada for a spot in the semi-finals.
(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
