Three to See: Zverev looks to end Roger's run; CoCo meets Muguruza

Before each day of play at the Australian Open, we'll preview and predict three must-see matches. For full coverage of the season's first Slam, go to our men’s and women’s tournament pages.

Zverev painted a masterpiece of elegantly aggressive tennis against his last opponent, Andy Murray. But what he said immediately afterward didn’t bode all that well for his next match. Asked about facing Federer, Zverev described him as his tennis idol and favorite player. It has never been easy for those who admire Federer to walk out with the bloody-mindedness needed to beat him. And as well as Zverev is playing right now, he probably won’t be particularly confident that he can keep it up. In his last match against Federer, he lost, 6-0, 6-0. It typically takes a fellow member of the Big Four to take out Federer in Australia, and while it will be interesting to see how effective Zverev’s net-rushing game is against him, he’s not a Hall of Famer quite yet.

Winner: Federer

The men’s draw has been good to a lot of people—Zverev, Federer and Grigor Dimitrov, to name three. But Wawrinka would seem to be just where he wants to be. First, he survived a five-set scare in his opener against Martin Klizan, the same way he survived a five-set scare early in the U.S. Open against Daniel Evans before going on to win it. Second, in the wake of Federer’s return and Murray and Novak Djokovic’s exits, no one is talking about Stan the Man. Tsonga has played some quality tennis in taking out Jack Sock and Evans in his last two matches, but he’s lost his last three to Wawrinka.

Winner: Wawrinka

Who are you more surprised to see in the quarterfinals: the 35th-ranked American or the seventh-ranked Spaniard? It’s a toss-up to me. After a mostly disastrous second half of 2016, Muguruza has steadied the ship in Melbourne. Granted, she hasn’t faced anyone overly imposing, but she has yet to drop a set. The free-swinging, free-speaking Vandeweghe has beaten some quality opponents—namely, world No. 1 Angelique Kerber in two quick sets. These two big hitters have played three times; Vandeweghe has won twice, both times on grass, while Muguruza won their most recent meeting, on a hard court last summer in Cincinnati. Each has the shots to take over a match. We’ll see who can get them to land.

Winner: Vandeweghe