Showman Monfils Sets up Nadal showdown
French showman Gael Monfils set up a clash with Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open fourth round with a straight-sets win over Philipp Kohlschreiber on Saturday.
Monfils reached the Melbourne round of 16 for the third time following a 6-3, 7-6 (7/1), 6-4 victory over the 32nd-seeded German in just under two hours on Margaret Court Arena.
It was the sixth seed's 13th win in 15 meetings with Kohlschreiber and clinched an anticipated crowd-pleasing encounter with Nadal, who fought back to beat rising young German Alexander Zverev in five sets.
Monfils trails the 14-time Grand Slam champion 12-2 in their meetings going back to 2005.
Monfils won his 24th match at the Australian Open following his earlier wins over Jiri Vesely and Alexandr Dolgopolov.
The Frenchman broke Kohlschreiber's serve five times and gave up his own serve three times while hitting 32 winners, 11 of them with his trademark forehand.
Source: Agence France Presse
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