The Mutua Madrid Open draw ceremony took place on Sunday evening. It is a draw without Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, and even Jannik Sinner recently withdrew. Still, a strong field includes the likes of Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Andrey Rublev, and Holger Rune.
Alcaraz successfully defended his Barcelona title on Sunday and he will now look to do the same in Madrid. The 19-year-old Spaniard defeated Nadal, Djokovic, and Alexander Zverev en route to last year’s victory at the Madrid Masters. Nadal and Djokovic aren’t in the way this time around, but Alcaraz could run into Zverev as early as the fourth round. An in-form Rublev is a potential quarterfinal opponent.
Elsewhere in the top half of the bracket, Rune and Casper Ruud are on a collision course for the quarterfinals–which would be a rematch of last season’s French Open quarterfinal clash. Rune is coming off a runner-up performance in Monte-Carlo (lost to Rublev) and a title in Munich. The 19-year-old doesn’t have an easy road in Madrid, where Hubert Hurkacz and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina lurk in the same section.
Another Alcaraz vs. Tsitsipas final is possible after they just battled for the Barcelona title. Tsitsipas landed in the bottom half of the draw on Sunday; the Greek could meet Tommy Paul in the last 16 and either Felix Auger-Aliassime or Frances Tiafoe in the quarters. Auger-Aliassime has not yet played during this clay-court swing.
Medvedev is also getting back in action at this Masters event. The fourth-ranked Russian played in Monte-Carlo and lost to Rune in the quarterfinals before withdrawing from Barcelona. A difficult Madrid draw for Medvedev possibly includes Andy Murray to start, Jiri Lehecka in the last 32, and either Taylor Fritz or Cameron Norrie in the quarters.
First-round matches to watch are Emil Ruusuvuori vs. Ugo Humbert, Stan Wawrinka vs. Maxime Cressy, and Dominic Thiem vs. Kyle Edmund.
[yop_poll id=”164″]
who ya got?
tough to go against Alcaraz.
Agree w/Guest, above,….but I’m going with Medevedev….Carlos may be tired, and Med should be very motivated.
Med winning on clay would be something .Happy to see it, but cant
Doesn’t the Madrid clay a fast court?
I picked Medvedev as a finalist 😀
Med over Tstsipas SF
sheesh, what terrible grammar!
Doesn’t the Madrid clay play like a fast court?
I would think it’s about the same as a slow hard court like Indian Wells and the thin air making the ball fly
.Im still not convinced about Meddy though .I’m going to check his clay record .
Watched the Stuttgart final it was pretty one sided. When I did my Madrid picks, I had Swiatek winning again at first, but at the last minute just had to change to Sabalenka once again.
Sabalenka has to play Sorana in the r64. Sorana beat her in Miami.
Petra has won Madrid before so I am hoping she has a good run. Starts with Niemeier who is tough.
Amy, please, pretty please, join the bracket group – you are way WTA savvy 😀
Sorana got away with surprising Saba in Miami. Still, could be a good match! On some draw sheet with the player list for Madrid, there was a line drawn through Ons Jabuer and Kvitova.
Kvitova- foot
Ons Jabeur – calf
But, you cant be sure until we see, I guess. Both are still on the tennis draw challenge bracket. True Neimeir is a big muscular German, scary.
Those withdrawals didn’t show when I did my picks. Damn. Didn’t have Ons winning anyway, because of her injury.
I have not been picking Swiatek to win because I hate seeing her lose.
And Madrid is not one she is defending. But I’d love it if she won!
Swiatek is defending Rome and FO. Yikes!
I’m not a fan of your favorite, Sabalenka.
My guess is Rybakina to win Madrid. TDC did not have Ons Jabeur or Kvitova off their draw; neither is playing Madrid.
above post was to Big AL ^^
Have gone same as you, WTA finalists and winner. Madrid favours big hitting players, I think.
The Madrid draw was a fun WTA bracket to pick. I’d love to see Ostapenko, Badosa, Giorgi, or Haddad Maia get a win here. 😀
I did hear Petchyman say that Shelby Rogers got placed in Ons Jabeur’s spot just now.
That would be frustrating if Kvitova didn’t pull out of Madrid, and I only chose her to win two matches. Kvitova, if healthy, can win Madrid again. (I have to look it up, but Kvitova has won Madrid) Petra has won Madrid three times!
I agree one of Kvitova,Rybakina and Sabalenka the big hitters are very likely to win if can beat Swiatek .
I hope Swiatek wins in Madrid! And skips Rome.
Do you hate Swiatek, Big Al?
Not at all.
I like to see different styles doing well on clay not just the defensive stuff. So Madrid is one of my favourite tournaments .
I must admit that I like defensive tennis: Aga Radwanska, Simona Halep, Barbora Strycova, Belinda Bencic, and Daria Kasatkina. Would you say Novak tennis is primarily defensive tennis? I can’t stand the ones who can win by throwing down aces like John Isner, Ivo Karlovic, and Milos Raonic. Federer could sometimes whip out games by unreturnable serving, but his tennis was an art form. Nadal’s tennis is quite a fantastic contrast to Federer’s. Rafa could run down anything and also get aggressive, and Andy Murray too. What the Big 4 had was both offense and great defense. They are the ones that got me hooked on following ATP tennis.
Sabalenka’s tennis personality bugs me; how she calls certain people her besties reminds me of the leader of a mean girl clique. It was terrible watching her play Iga. But maybe all that will go away or mellow out. Karolina Pliskova was not kidding when she said Arina doesn’t like playing Iga. The trophy ceremony picture of Iga and Arina from Stuttgart said it all. Peace and love to them, and good luck!
“…big 4..”?!
With due respect to Andy, it was never big 4, only big 3, it’s sor of disrespectful to put him on the same level with Nole, Rafa and Roger.
Just look at the numbers:
22 – 22 – 20 ………..3
7 – 5 – 5 …………1
384 – 310 – 209 ………41
38 -36 – 28 – ………14
The list goes on and on.
I would agree about the mix of aggressive defensive by the big three ,but they still play too much counterpunching type tennis,interesting Djoko has improved his serve to play more aggressive .I do prefer aggressive tennis esp baseliners not ace machines.I didn’t pick up on the attitude thing with aryna, just thought she was a bit of a character .Ill watch for it.