The reels and rods are stowed back home on Mallorca for an earlier than usual trip Down Under. Two matches later, the jet-lagged interview yawns have subsided and the Spaniard is finding his range on the blue floodlit Pat Rafter Arena.
Now the first serious test of Rafael Nadal’s campaign. The former world No.1 – a winner of 69 career titles, including 14 majors – meets Milos Raonic, the top seed and defending champion, for a place in the semifinals.
Nadal claimed a three-set result between the pair at an exhibition event in Abu Dhabi on the eve of this year’s Brisbane International. That match doesn’t count on their official head-to-head ledger. The Spaniard leads that 6-1, although they haven’t met since 2015.
A wrist injury skittled Nadal’s French Open and Wimbledon campaigns in 2016, and sidelined him again for the tail end of the season. Still, the 30-year-old managed claycourt titles in Monte-Carlo and Barcelona.
World No.3 Raonic returns to defend his Brisbane title after his strongest season to date. The 26-year-old Canadian claimed his eighth career title here last year, when he dethroned Roger Federer, before defeating Stan Wawrinka on the way to the Australian Open semifinals.
Raonic again ended Federer’s run at Wimbledon en route to his first grand slam final where he fell to Andy Murray.
Jordan Thompson’s career-best win sealed on the right side of a 39-shot rally on Wednesday night had a parochial crowd in a frenzy.
On Friday, the dogged Aussie wildcard will have the chance to top his upset of eighth seed David Ferrer when he goes into battle with world No.5 Kei Nishikori for the first time on PRA.
A place in his first tour semifinal is on the line, while for Nishikori, a fourth trip to the last four in Brisbane beckons.
Sydneysider Thompson was a Rio Olympian in 2016 and claimed four Challenger level titles to finish the season ranked No.79.
Nishikori secured an Olympic singles bronze medal for Japan in Rio with his defeat of Nadal and went on to reach his second slam semifinal at Flushing Meadows, with an upset of Murray. The two have never played off.
After nine years starting his season in Chennai, three-time grand slam champion Stan Wawrinka made his Brisbane debut on Wednesday night with an impressive result against big-hitting Serb, Viktor Troicki.
The 31-year-old Swiss will take on surprise quarterfinalist Kyle Edmund, who advanced to the last eight when sixth seed Lucas Pouille withdrew mid-match due to a foot injury. Wawrinka took down the Brit once before, in Shanghai last season.
A new women’s champion will be crowned with four first-time Brisbane semifinalists doing battle. Fourth seed Garbine Muguruza has had arguably the toughest path, battling for more than six hours total to bring down former US Open champion Sam Stosur and Russian youngster Daria Kasatkina, saving a match point in the process.
She saw off dual slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova on Thursday to set a semifinal match with 41st-ranked Frenchwoman Alize Cornet, a player she owns a 2-0 record against.
Former world No.11 Cornet almost let it slip when she stuttered against No.2 seed Dominika Cibulkova on Thursday. The 26-year-old needed to serve for the match three times to land her first WTA Premier Level semifinal in nearly three years. Cornet claimed the Hobart title last year, the fifth of her career.
The last two players to defeat then No.1 Serena Williams at the US Open squared off in Thursday’s fourth quarterfinal, with third seed Karolina Pliskova fending off Roberta Vinci in three.
The No.3 seed helped the Czech Republic to its third straight Fed Cup title and will take on Ukrainian sixth seed Elina Svitolina for a place in the final.
Svitolina sprung the upset on world No.1 Angelique Kerber on Thursday night and will need to overcome a 0-4 record against the Czech. The 22-year-old reached her first grand slam quarterfinal at last year’s French Open and beat Williams at the Rio Olympics.