World No. 2 Rafael Nadal will continue his journey at the Australian Open and will meet the World No. 48 Matthew Ebden in the second round.
Watch & bet on Rafael Nadal v Matthew Ebden live with bet365 here* on Wednesday, January 16. The Nadal v Ebden match timings will be announced soon.
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Nadal’s Flawless Start to Competition
The Spaniard No. 1 started his run in the first Grand Slam of the year against the Australian James Duckworth.
In a little over two hours, Nadal sailed comfortably to a straight-set victory with 6-4, 6-3, 7-5. While it wasn’t the best performance by the 32-year-old, he still did enough to get the job done.
He kept his first service win rate at 74% and won a total of six break points out of a possible 12. More impressively, the second seed committed only 11 unforced errors through the match, in comparison to Duckworth’s 40.
Nadal has won the Australian Open only once – a feat he achieved in 2009. Since then, he has appeared in three finals and lost in all of them, with the most recent one being the 2017 edition. Last year, he made in Melbourne, he made it as far as the quarterfinal before retiring against Marin Cilic.
Nonetheless, he moved on to have considerable success in 2018, starting with the Monte-Carlo Masters and ATP Barcelona and eventually winning the French Open.
Ebden’s Four-Set Epic v Jan-Lennard Struff
Considering Matthew Ebden’s start to the competition, he faced the German Jan-Lennard Struff whom he defeated 1-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 in two hours and 25 minutes. After losing the first set in a stunning fashion, he did quite well to stage a comeback and win the match.
However, his win included 11 double faults, 27 winners, and 33 unforced errors. Just like Nadal’s, it was not the neatest of the wins but he did manage to get an important win here.
Before coming to Melbourne, he played in Sydney where he lost his opening match to Guido Andreozzi. As for his run in 2018, the highlights include his quarterfinal feat at the Shanghai Masters and a run to the semifinal in Atlanta.
Ebden also won the Challenger tournament in Busan.
Rafael Nadal v Matthew Ebden – Who Will Win?
Prior to this encounter, Nadal and Ebden have met each other only once. The encounter took place at the 2011 ATP London Queen’s Club where the Spaniard won in straight sets.
Between the two players, Nadal is far more experienced and capable. He is definitely going to start this match as the favourite to win and he should be able to win this one comfortably.
You can watch & bet on Rafael Nadal v Matthew Ebden live with bet365 here on Wednesday, January 16.
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