One of Rafael Nadal’s favourite tournaments – and another one he holds a record at, the Mutua Madrid Open in the Spanish capital. One of the highlights of the clay court season in the lead-up to the only clay court Slam of the year, the Madrid Open has even been played on blue clay!
Rafael Nadal holds the record for most wins here, with four titles and a total of seven finals.
Now in the form of his life, he’ll contend for a record-extending fifth title.
Here are some big matches we’d love to see played out:
Andy Murray vs Nick Kyrgios
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No. 1 Andy Murray has not been in ideal form of late, suffering earlier-than-usual and surprising losses at nearly every tournament, while Kyrgios appears to have calmed down significantly since his antics of the past few years, something he has credited partner and fellow tennis professional Ajla Tomljanovic with.
Kyrgios, seeded 16th in Madrid, took an occasionally-tense win over Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, trumping him 7-6, 6-4 and hitting a total of 14 aces en route to that straight sets win. That feat is remarkable considering it has been Kyrgios’ first match on clay in a year.
He’s up 17-4 this season, with 2016 having been his career-best season so far; the 22-year-old won 3 titles last year, and has appeared to also have sobered down.
The young Australian ace, who was recently tipped by former No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt as a future Grand Slam winner – and indeed, has come fairly close to doing so, has yet to beat Andy Murray in his career so far, but this year beat Novak Djokovic twice – most recently in straight sets at the Indian Wells masters.
Murray is the sole member of the Big Four that Kyrgios is yet to beat – he has had wins over Federer, Nadal and Novak Djokovic. As it currently stands, Murray leads Kyrgios 5-0 on their head-to-head record, although they have had only one match over the past two seasons – at Wimbledon 2016, with Murray winning in straight sets each time.
We might be a bit wary of this considering Kyrgios has been seen to be struggling with injuries and was in pain even following his win over Baghdatis. That said, Murray has not had an ideal season either.
The Scot has one title so far this year, at the ATP500 Dubai Duty Free Championships, but even then was taxed by Germany’s Phillipp Kohlschreiber in the quarter-finals, coming close to crashing out.
Murray has not moved past past the Round of 16 at either of the Masters tournaments so far this year, and has not had a successful start to his clay season either, suffering a semi-final loss at the ATP500 Barcelona Open to Dominic Thiem.
30-year-old Murray has been the Australian’s Excalibur, so to speak, so given Murray’s slow start and Kyrgios’ fairly strong one, it’ll be interesting to see how this one pans out.
Andy Murray vs Novak Djokovic
The two top seeds at Madrid, Murray and Djokovic need to both make the finals if they are to play each other. Given the way the two have been playing recently, this may not be a sure thing. That said, however, the two started the year off with a final against each other at the ATP250 Qatar Open – with Djokovic emerging the victor there.
Their rivalry has been one of tennis’ biggest, with Djokovic leading their 36-match rivalry 25-11 – with Murray snatching the World No. 1 mantle from his Serbian friend and competitor following the ATP World Tour Finals of 2016.
Despite being World No. 1 and World No. 2, neither player has been in notable form in light of their 2016 successes, so it might not necessarily be likely the two will face off. If they do, however, it will be an interesting match for sure. Their last match on clay came at the finals of the 2016 French Open, giving Djokovic his first title at the venue – but that came on the heels of Murray beating him to the title at the Rome Masters.
The pair have played each other on clay six times, winning five of those battles – and Djokovic, until last year, was considered one of the best clay court players to have never won the French Open – which now, he has.
He will likely be more confident on clay than Murray, and has been far more successful on the surface than him as well. We’ll give this one to Djokovic, should this happen.
Rafael Nadal vs Novak Djokovic
Placed at the end of the third and fourth quarters here, Nadal and Djokovic could meet in the semi-finals of the Mutua Madrid Open.
To say Nadal is a seasoned campaigner here would be an understatement – he is, to date, the only player in history to have achieved the Clay Slam – the only player to win all three clay court Masters 1000 tournaments and the lone clay court grand slam tournament in a single calendar season.
The Spaniard won the Monte Carlo Masters 1000, Rome Masters 1000, Madrid Masters 1000, and the French Open in 2010.
Nadal has four titles here of seven finals, three of which were consecutive – and stands alone in each of those records. The pair also share one of the most even head-to-head records in tennis, at 26-23 to Djokovic.
Their most recent match – played at the 2016 clay-court Rome Masters – a title which eventually went to Andy Murray, saw Nadal face off against his Serbian rival and tax him to the limit despite a straight sets loss.
Now, with Nadal in perhaps the form of his life and Djokovic struggling for wins, this looks like it’ll be Nadal all the way – but we’re sure that it won’t be an easy contest.
Dominic Thiem vs Rafa Nadal
Dominic Thiem’s exquisite groundstrokes at the finals of the ATP500 Barcelona Open, a home tournament for Rafael Nadal, had many touting the Austrian as a definitive future winner at Roland Garros.
It was Thiem who knocked out Andy Murray, top seed and World No. 1 from that tournament in the semi-finals – and he has only ever faced Nadal on clay. Unlike most players – including his own contemporaries in age, Thiem has taken a victory over Nadal on clay, at the semi-finals of the Buenos Aires Open in Argentina – where the Austrian eventually won the title.
While he has fared decently on grass as well, Thiem’s forte appears to be on clay – and he is strongly considered part of the NextGen, in a NextGen that seems to be heavily weighted with grass-court specialists more than any other surface.
Although their recent match was rather one-sided, Thiem put up a spirited fight, let alone in the end by an ever-mounting unforced error count – with Nadal the one getting off to a nervous, shaky start, unable to break Thiem’s strong serve.
With a new awareness of his previous errors and fresh off a match against the Greatest of All Time on clay, Thiem could well put up a fight here.
Thiem is in Q1 with Nadal placed in Q3 – so Thiem will have to make the finals for this to happen. But then again, that may not be as unlikely as we think.
Alexander Zverev vs Stan Wawrinka
One player is a French Open winner – and the other has never lost to him in their history! 2016 US Open winner and 2015 French Open champion Wawrinka has proved his prowess on clay, and has described it on several occasions as his favourite surface.
The pair are placed in the same quarter, putting them in very likely QF contention given the draw.
Touted as tennis’ Next Big Thing, part of the ATP NextGen and considered by many senior players a ‘future No. 1,’ 20-year-old Zverev, the youngest player in the ATP Top 20, has never lost to Wawrinka.
The two have played each other twice in the past, most recently at the Miami Masters this year, with Zverev firmly wresting control from Wawrinka after a first-set loss; he also beat Wawrinka at the finals in St. Petersburg, soon after the Swiss ace’s US Open victory. That win also marked Zverev’s first-ever career title.
Now, the 20-year-old is fresh off his first ever home title at the Bavarian Tennis Championships, played on outdoor clay courts – so riding high on that success, he could put up quite the fight against Wawrinka – and given his form, could even pull off an upset of the third seed.
What is the foot injury that has troubled Rafael Nadal over the years? Check here
