Andy Murray is in action at the Madrid Masters on Thursday against qualifier Andrea Vavassori, while newcomer Alexander Shevchenko takes on American J.J. Wolf. Round one will be complete by Thursday night.
Andy Murray vs. (Q) Andrea Vavassori
Veteran fan favorite Andy Murray hasn’t had a good start to the clay-court season. The Scot was knocked out of the Monte-Carlo Masters in the first round by Alex de Minaur. Murray has had solid results on hard courts in 2023. He even made the final of Doha, where he came up short against Russia’s Daniil Medvedev.
He’ll have a much better opportunity to advance on Thursday against the qualifier Andrea Vavassori. The Italian world No. 164 spends most of his time on the Challenger circuit. He has had some recent success in Marrakech, where he came up through qualies to make his first tour-level quarterfinal.
Murray will undoubtedly have the backing of the crowd as the nostalgic favorite, but Vavassori has been playing well on clay and could make a match of it.
Cheryl pick: Murray in 2
Ricky pick: Murray in 2
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J.J. Wolf vs. (Q) Alexander Shevchenko
This will be the first meeting between American J.J. Wolf and Alexander Shevchenko. It’s not surprising, since Shevchenko is just breaking through Challenger level events to compete in tour-level matches. The Russian made the final at the Phoenix Challenger and won the Madrid Challenger a couple weeks ago.
Madrid marks Wolf’s first foray onto European clay in 2023. He dipped his toe in the water in Houston, but the lone American clay-court event doesn’t play like the Masters 1000s leading up to the French Open. Wolf made the quarterfinals of the water-logged tournament in Houston.
At No. 49 in the world, Wolf is ranked far above Shevchenko’s No. 96–but in this case the surface is likely to act as an equalizer. The Russian is a good clay-courter, while Wolf has won exactly three matches on the dirt–all of which have come in Houston (one in 2022, two in 2023).
A Shevchenko win might be an upset on paper, but it would not be surprising if he advanced to round two.
Cheryl pick: Shevchenko in 2
Ricky pick: Shevchenko in 3
WWW?
Murray in 3; JJ in 3.