In the day session on Rod Laver Arena, third-seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia will face ninth-seed Hubert Hurkacz of Poland in the Australian Open quarter-finals. 

Daniil Medvedev never had an easy game against his Polish counterpart. In fact, Hurkacz leads 3-2 in their head-to-head series. 

Hubert Hurkacz won the pair's last meeting in the ATP Tour - a 6-1, 6-4 victory in the final of the Halle Open in June 2022.

The Pole, then defending champion, also beat Daniil Medvedev 7-6, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the Miami Masters in 2022. 

Last but not least, Hurkacz also beat Medvedev in their only previous Grand Slam meeting (in 2021) when he claimed a 2-6, 7-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 win over the Russian in the Wimbledon round of 16. 

The winner will face either second-seed Carlos Alcaraz of Spain or sixth-seed Alexander Zverev of Germany in the semi-finals. 

Two-time finalist at Melbourne Park, Medvedev started his season directly at the Australian Open. 

As a result, Medvedev made a slow start to his Australian Open campaign but he survived and is now one of the quarterfinalists. 

The 27-year-old played exhibition matches (in both singles and doubles) at the World Tennis League in the United Arab Emirates last month. As mentioned above, one of them was against Hurkacz but the Australian Open is a completely different stage. 

Daniil Medvedev suffered a third-round setback at the Australian Open last year. The Russian lost in straight sets to Sebastian Korda of the United States, but he avoided a similar scenario this year when he fought back from two sets down to complete a thrilling comeback against Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland in the second round. 

The top-ranked Russian had arguably produced his best performance against Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime in the third round when the Russian claimed a 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 victory in just over two hours.

Daniil Medvedev outlasted Nuno Borges of Portugal in the fourth round, with the Portuguese coming off the back of an impressive victory over an in-form Grigor Dimitrov. 

The Russian is aiming to claim his second Grand Slam title after he ended Novak Djokovic's Calendar Slam bid at the US Open in 2021. However, Medvedev had lost his next two Major finals, including a heartbreaking five-setter defeat to Rafael Nadal in Melbourne two years ago. When Medvedev dropped a two-set lead. 

All in all, the World No. 3 played nine ATP finals in 2023 and he won five of them, including the Masters 1000 titles in Miami and Rome. 

Ever since Medvedev won his maiden title on clay at the Rome Masters in May, the Russian lost his last three finals. In addition to the aforementioned US Open final loss to Djokovic, Medvedev also lost back-to-back ATP 500 finals to Jannik Sinner at the China Open and Vienna Open in October. 

Furthermore, Medvedev also reached the Wimbledon semi-finals in July, where he lost in straight-sets to eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz, and suffered another defeat to Jannik Sinner in the semi-finals of the ATP Finals. 

The Pole continues his strong performances Down Under, with Hurkacz now on the eve of his maiden Australian Open quarter-final. 

A huge championship victory against Daniil Medvedev allowed Hurkacz to emphasize his grass-court credentials at the Halle Open in the European summer of 2022. However, he will have to show greater resilience and keep his head cool on the Melbourne heat if he is to outlast Daniil Medvedev in a best of five. 

Even though he remains the player who boasts most aces to his name at this year's Australian Open, Hurkacz was outaced by Arthur Cazaux in the round of 16. However, this wasn't enough for the young Frenchman, who lost in straight sets as Hurkacz wrapped up his 7-6, 7-6, 6-4 victory in two hours and 26 minutes. 

The No. 9 seed started his Australian Open campaign with a 7-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over Australian qualifier Omar Jasika. He went on to beat Czech Republic qualifier Jakub Mensik in five sets in the second round, before another challenging clash against No. 21 seed Ugo Humbert of France in the third round. 

Daniil Medvedev is the overwhelming favorite to win the match but Hurkacz has always been a tricky opponent for him, so we expect a tight clash between two powerful players.