Australian Open: Night Shift! Adrian Mannarino fixes round of 16 duel with Rafael Nadal
Adrian Mannarino continues his surprising run of success at the Australian Open. With a four-set win over the Russian Aslan Karatsev late in Melbourne night, the Frenchman has now fixed a round of 16 duel with Rafael Nadal.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: Jan 21, 2022, 04:33 pm
The first spectators in the stands had already fallen asleep when Aslan Karatsev, plagued by cramps, and Frenchman Adrian Mannarino were still fighting under the Melbourne night sky. Almost exactly at 2:30 a.m. local time, Mannarino, who had slowly but surely gained the upper hand after a late break in the third set, had the first two match points. And made the four-set success perfect after more than four and a half hours of play.
With 7: 6 (4), 6: 7 (4), 7: 5 and 6: 3, the man from France finally had the upper hand and fixed the entry into the round of 16 at the Australian Open 2022. That was already before 33-year-old managed one of the big surprises of the tournament against Hubert Hurkacz when he took the Pole out of the tournament in three sets.
Round of 16 against Nadal
Aslan Karatsev, on the other hand, had to pay tribute to the efforts of the last few days in this real night session against Adrian Mannarino. Karatsev had won the title in the days before the Australian Open in Sydney and left a lot of energy behind with a five- and four-set win in the first and second round. In 2021, the Russian reached the semi-finals Down Under out of nowhere.
Adrian Mannarino now faces Rafael Nadal in the round of 16, who put on an extremely convincing performance in his third-round duel with Karen Khachanov and prevailed in four sets. A possible quarter-final opponent is the German Alexander Zverev, who meets Denis Shapovalov in the round of 16.
Here is the men's individual tableau!
laver arena