TipResumen

PREVIEW

It was a tough evening for Rafael Nadal in his Quarter Final win over Marin Cilic, but he showed enough of his fighting quality to edge out the Croatian over three sets. Marin Cilic is a tough opponent and the level of competition does come down a little bit when Nadal faces Karen Khachanov in the Masters Semi Final on Saturday. I am a big fan of the young Russian, but the Khachanov run to the Semi Final here has come out of left field when you think how poorly he had played on the hard courts since winning an indoor title in Marseille. An early defeat in Washington last week underlined the level of performance Khachanov had been producing, but it has been a different story this week in Toronto. Wins over Pablo Carreno Busta and John Isner have been particularly eye-opening, but Khachanov will have to overcome some mental challenges in this one against the best player he will have faced this week. Rafael Nadal has won all three previous matches against Khachanov and to say he has dominated would be an understatement. All seven sets played have been won by Nadal and the majority of those have been very strong wins for the Spaniard who has been able to have a lot of success on the return of serve against one of Khachanov's big weapons. The return game of the youngster is not quite up to the level to match the elite of the ATP Tour and that has been shown up in his matches and defeats to Nadal. This week has been much better for Khachanov when it comes to the return game, but this is going to be a much tougher task to break down the Nadal service game and I favour the World Number 1 to get through this Semi Final with some room to spare. He hasn't been at his best this week so far, but Nadal has room to improve form the level he has displayed. The strong mental strength has helped him past Stan Wawrinka and Marin Cilic but Nadal has played well enough too and I think he will be far too good for Khachanov. Maybe the Russian can make this a closer match than he has in the past against Nadal, but I am not convinced and I will back the Spaniard to come through with a win and a cover.



PREDICTION

Pick the World Number 1 to cover a big number in the second Semi Final to be played at the ATP Toronto Masters.