The No. 3 seed, who is Rafael Nadal, is going to be partaking in one of the most anticipated matches to date so far this year during the U.S. Open, when he is going to take on Gael Monfils during the round of 16.

We are talking about a six time grand slam champion who is going to be in tough against who we lovingly refer to as the flying Frenchman. Nadal has been working on nursing a recent pull in his abdomen which he just recently sustained while he was playing against Nicolas Almagro. His lack of match play is seeming to have a negative effect on his game right now.

Monfils has managed to make it quietly into his second straight round in New York. This Frenchman has made it all the way to the fourth round if not better for three out of the last four majors during this year. He was unfortunately forced to withdraw out of the Wimbledon tournament earlier this year because he was dealing with ongoing inflammation in one of his knees that was impacting his play in a bad way.

Monfils did manage to grab a first ever win against Nadal earlier this year in Qatar. Then Nadal then went on to return the favor about a month later when he took a straight set win over Monfils in Rotterdam.

Is Nadal's 4-1 head to head lead against Monfils going to be enough to give the Spaniard an edge that he needs during this suspect and dire times? We think so!

Nadal is absolutely notorious when it comes to keeping things as simple as they possibly can be on the court. He is truly great when it comes to improvising when it is absolutely needed. Still, the core behind his game is going to reside in doing the absolute bare minimum and still managing to achieve the absolute best possible results.

If the job is going to require for Nadal to hit exclusively to the backhand of his opponent, then he will absolutely do just that. If the task at hand is going to be for him to slice the backhand three times for every point, then that is the tactic that he is going to stick with.

There are certainly plenty of recent examples of the diligent work that Nadal is known for including his recent win over Federer in Australia, and the wind victory that he took over Andy Murray when they were playing in Indian Wells. Nadal has been playing well within his capabilities during both of these encounters, and he simply managed to deal with the conditions much better than either of his opponents were able to.

This match is certainly going to be one that is well worth watching.

Photo credits: alanpixx

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abdomen, backhand, bare minimum, flying frenchman, grand slam champion, inflammation, knees, majors, match play, monfils, nicolas almagro, opponent, qatar, rafael nadal, rotterdam, spaniard, tactic, three times, wimbledon, wimbledon tournament