The third quarter-final at the 2019 Australian Open will see the Canadian 16th seed Milos Raonic take on the 28th seeded Lucas Pouille of France. This match will be played on Wednesday.
Watch & bet on Milos Raonic v Lucas Pouille live with bet365 here* on Wednesday, January 23. The Raonic v Pouille match will not be played before 3 pm local time (5 am BST).
[the_ad id=’6730′]
*Geo-restrictions apply & pre-funded account needed
Milos Raonic v Lucas Pouille Head to Head
In three previous matches that have been played between Raonic and Pouille, the Canadian has won all three. This includes one that was played last year on grass at Stuttgart which saw Raonic enter the final of that tournament.
And while that was on grass, the two victories before that came on hard court, including one in the first round of the Australian Open of 2016. Raonic is yet to drop a set to Pouille in all those three matches.
Raonic Aiming for Second Australian Open Semi-Final
Having made the semi-final at the 2016 Australian Open and then entered the final at the Wimbledon that very year, things looked to be headed in the right direction for the Canadian. However, he has been bogged down by poor form and fitness concerns at times, having made it to the three Grand Slam quarter-finals after that but never beyond.
However, those losses came at the hands of Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and John Isner, players he would have known to not give him an inch going into those encounters. Pouille won’t be a pushover himself, but doesn’t come with a pedigree associated with the aforementioned names – not yet anyway – and Raonic will fancy his chances.
Especially after the kind of tournament he has had so far, with wins over Nick Kyrgios, Stan Wawrinka and Alexander Zverev. The Zverev result, in particular, should give Raonic a lot of confidence for bigger, better things, as he beat the German fourth seed in straight sets.
This was after Zverev had gone into the match as a favourite, looking to make a deep run into the competition.
Pouille’s Easier Draw but Solid Play
You play only who is in front of you but Pouille will definitely consider himself lucky that his biggest challenge in this competition so far has come in the form of the 11th seeded Borna Coric. That was in the fourth round and Pouille was by far the superior player and came out all guns blazing, defeating his opponent in four sets.
The defeat of Dominic Thiem in an earlier round meant that the Frenchman was left with Alexei Popyrin to face in round three after he had beaten Mikhail Kukushkin and Maximilian Marterer in the first two.
This result, his entry into the quarter-final would come as a huge relief for the Frenchman too, having earlier lost in round one of the Sydney International at the start of the year and after he was beaten in all three matches at the Hopman Cup too.
In fact, Pouille was on a seven-match losing streak extending to the previous year and for him to then have made the quarter-final at the Australian Open deserves a lot of credit. Can he go one further though?
Raonic v Pouille Tips & Predictions
Raonic’s red-hot form makes him not just the favourite to register his fourth win over Pouille but also to do that in straight sets.
You can watch & bet on Elina Svitolina v Naomi Osaka live with bet365 here on Wednesday, January 23.
Be the first to comment