R. Nadal
Nadal was able to climb the table throne in the middle of last season. The best results he recorded in the sand tournaments, as he has no serious competition on this floor. The Spaniard scored six ATP titles last season, four of them in the sand tournaments. As for the hard court, he celebrated at the US Open and in Beijing. One of four last year’s final matches he lost was at the tournament in Melbourne, where he was beaten by R. Federer.
In the round of sixteen this year’s Australian Open Nadal has celebrated against D. Schwartzman. The Argentinian proved to be no harmless opponent and so Nadal lost the second set in the tie-break, while Schwartzman solid resistance in the remaining three rounds. Statistically, Schwartzman was better at scoring directly (58:46) and that’s one of the reasons Nadal made so many unforced mistakes (51:66).

M. Cilic
Cilic was fourth in the world at the end of last season and that was his best ranking in the career. Before the start of the Australian Open, he finished 6th in the ATP ranking. Prior to this grand slam, he participated in the tournament in Pune, where he was eliminated in the semi-final by G. Simon. In his career, he has scored 17 titles and one of those titles comes from last season’s tournament in Istanbul, where he triumphed over M. Raonic in the final.

Our Prediction: Nadal win @ 1.50