Rafael Nadal earmarked as potential Australian Open winner by Alexander Zverev: 'Rafa's playing incredible tennis'

Alexander Zverev believes Rafael Nadal is the man to beat at the Australian Open this year if he is to win his first Grand Slam tournament. The third seed has been in fantastic form so far in Melbourne, not dropping a set in his first two matches including beating home hero John Millman 6-4, 6-4, 6-0 to advance to round three. Ad/> But despite two World Tour wins and Olympic gold in Tokyo, Zverev is yet to break his Grand Slam duck and hopes to improve on his Australian Open semi-final appearance in 2020 when he was beaten by Dominic Thiem.

Australian OpenAustralian Open order of play: Day 4 — Murray, Raducanu lead GB charge, Kyrgios show rolls on5 HOURS AGO Speaking after his win over Millman, the German pinpointed his potential threats in the men’s draw but reserved special praise for Nadal who is gunning for his record 21st major in Melbourne. “I think Novak is probably the best – no question about it. He’s won the most." Zverev said.

“I think I’ve said this a lot before. Daniil [Medvedev] has won incredible tournaments over the last few months, few years so he’s one of the best players on hard courts. Zverev crushes Millman to reach third round Nadal into third round after hard-fought win over 'dangerous' Hanfmann 'The chocolate was over!' — Nadal reveals new focus as he targets AO title “I’ve won the Olympics, World Tour finals, things like that.