REVEALED! Rafael Nadal’s potential path to 2021 Toronto Masters title
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Rafael Nadal
Defending champion of 2 years and 5-time champion at the Toronto Masters, Rafael Nadal is all set to come out in defence of the title again which will be a historic one for the Spaniard. A 6th title will take Nadal on level with former American great Ivan Lendl who is the current record holder with 6 titles at the Masters tournament in Canada.
Interestingly, Nadal who shares the most Masters title with Novak Djokovic with 36 titles each, can go past the Serbian who will not be participating this year at the tournament as he takes some time off the court after some busy months. Novak is taking time off to nurse his shoulder injury which got worse at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as he played with the injury during his week-long stay in Tokyo.
Rafael Nadal could renew rivalry with Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semi-finals
Nadal will be the only member of the Big-3 collective to participate in the tournament as Roger Federer has also withdrawn from the tournament due to the knee injury he picked up at the 2021 Wimbledon and will not play in Toronto and the 2021 Cincinnati Masters as well.
Nadal will begin his 2021 Toronto campaign directly in the 2nd round as he receives a bye in the first round being the 2nd seed behind Russian Daniil Medvedev who enters as the top-seeded player. In the 2nd round, Nadal will most likely play Lloyd Harris, who defeated him in the Round of 16 at the 2021 Washington Open as Harris will begin against a qualifier.
In the third round, Nadal can expect either the 14th seeded Grigor Dimitrov or Australian mystery Nick Kyrgios. If he moves to the quarter-finals, he could set up a clash with compatriot and 10th seeded Roberto Bautista Agut or 8th seeded Argentine Diego Schwartzman.
- R1: Bye
- R2: Lloyd Harris/Qualifier
- R3: Grigor Dimitrov/ Nick Kyrgios
- QF: Diego Schwartzman/ Roberto Bautista Agut
- SF: Stefanos Tsitsipas/ Casper Ruud
- F: Daniil Medvedev/ Andrey Rublev
The semi-finals will undoubtedly be the toughest fixture for Nadal as he could meet 3rd seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas or the 6th seeded Casper Ruud, both of whom have been in great form this season and will be the first real test for Rafa. If Nadal manages to make it to the finals, he is most likely to face either of the Russians top-seeded Daniil Medvedev or 4th seeded Andrey Rublev.
The 2021 Toronto Masters will begin from 9th August with the finals scheduled on 15th August.
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Sarthak Shitole
(3462 Articles Published)