French crowd-pleaser Gael Monfils should give world No.1 Rafael Nadal his toughest challenge of the Australian Open so far when they meet in the third round on Saturday night.

The match will make for an interesting contrast of styles, with Monfils’ athleticism and flashy shot-making up against Nadal’s relentless power and accuracy.

It should also provide Nadal with a substantial test.

The top seed had an easy ride through the first round when Australia’s Bernard Tomic withdrew just a set into their clash, then outgunned Australian 17-year-old Thanasi Kokkinakis in round two.

Monfils, the 25th seed, took a set off Nadal when he lost to him in the final of the recent Doha ATP event.

And he beat the Spaniard in their previous most recent meeting, two years earlier.

The Frenchman will enter Saturday night’s clash in strong form, having not dropped a set in winning his first two matches at the Open, against Americans Ryan Harrison and Jack Sock.

Two other Frenchmen, 10th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and 18th seed Gilles Simon will meet in another third-round match on Saturday night.

Simon has won two of his past three matches against Tsonga.

But while big-hitting Tsonga hasn’t dropped a set in the first two rounds, Simon has faced a huge battle to get through.

He entered the Open under an injury cloud, after damaging an ankle in a warm-up event at Kooyong.

He then endured an enormously tough first round clash with German Daniel Brands, which Simon won 16-14 in the fifth set after saving seven match points.

Simon then came back from two sets to one down to beat Croatian Marin Cilic in the second round.

Other players in action on Saturday include Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka.