The second of three clay-court Masters 1000 events will get underway on Sunday in Madrid, where Tomas Berdych has a tough opening test on his hands in the form of Richard Gasquet. Denis Shapovalov and Tennys Sandgren are also in action.
Richard Gasquet vs. (14) Tomas Berdych
Berdych and Gasquet will be squaring off for the 17th time in their careers when they meet again in round one of the Mutua Madrid Open on Sunday. The head-to-head series stands at 9-7 in favor of Berdych and they have split four previous clay-court encounters at two wins apiece. They have faced each once at each of the three clay-court Masters 1000 events, with Berdych prevailing in Monte-Carlo (2010), Gasquet getting the job done in Rome (2011), and Berdych winning 7-6(3), 7-5 three years ago at this same Madrid tournament. Berdych’s most recent 7-6(4), 6-1 victory last season on the indoor hard courts of Rotterdam was his third in a row over Gasquet and sixth in their last seven contests.
This a second straight rough draw for Berdych despite being seeded, as he went up against Kei Nishikori right away in Monte-Carlo and lost 4-6, 6-2, 6-1. The 17th-ranked Czech has not done much since reaching the Australian Open quarterfinals and heads into Madrid with a 2-4 record in his last six matches. A back injury plagued Gasquet in late February and throughout March, but he began his clay-court swing with a semifinal showing in Marrakech and a quarterfinal performance in Monte-Carlo. In Budapest, however, the 29th-ranked Frenchman came up short in his opener against unheralded qualifier Lorenzo Sonego. The high-altitude conditions in Madrid should once again suit Berdych, who has three quarterfinal finishes, two semifinal results, and one runner-up since this event moved from indoor hard courts to clay in 2009.
Pick: Berdych in 3
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Denis Shapovalov vs. Tennys Sandgren
Shapovalov and Sandgren will be going head-to-head for the second time in their careers and for the first time at the ATP level on Sunday. Their only previous encounter came in the final of a 2016 Futures event on hard courts in the United States, where Shapovalov triumphed 7-6(4), 7-6(4). Both players have emerged from relative obscurity since then–especially Shapovalov. The 19-year-old Canadian is up to No. 42 in the world thanks to success even at the highest levels (semifinals of the Rogers Cup, fourth round of the U.S. Open last summer) and he has already picked up 11 main-tour match wins in 2018.
Sandgren has produced plenty of headlines this year, both for good and bad. On the court, the 51st-ranked American made a run to the Australian Open quarterfinals and he finished runner-up to compatriot Steve Johnson on the red clay of Houston. Sandgren has since lost first-round matches in Monte-Carlo (to Philipp Kohlschreiber) and Barcelona (to Malek Jaziri) in easy straight sets. Both Kohlschreiber (Munich) and Jaziri (Istanbul) currently find themselves in clay-court finals, however, so those losses by Sandgren are not exactly discouraging. Because Shapovalov’s form on this surface is questionable at best, a slight edge goes to the Houston finalist.
Pick: Sandgren in 3
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