Top seed Carlos Alcaraz will headline Sunday play at the Madrid Masters against Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov. Recent Monte-Carlo champion Andrey Rublev will also be in action against Yoshihito Nishioka.
(1) Carlos Alcaraz vs. (26) Grigor Dimitrov
Madrid top seed and defending champion Carlos Alcaraz goes into the last 32 following a tricky second-round match against Emil Ruusuvuori. The Spaniard later reported that he felt on the verge of losing the match.
“It was really tough. I would say I was about to lose.”
Ruusuvuori was up a set and had break points at 2-3 in the second set. Alcaraz saved them and was able to work himself back into the match. The world No. 2 has three titles this season already, including one from Barcelona last week–where he was also the defending champion.
World No. 32 Grigor Dimitrov had a solid result indoors in Rotterdam earlier this season. The Bulgarian made the semifinals, where he got shellacked by Daniil Medvedev. He hasn’t had much luck on clay so far this year, though, winning a single match in both Monte-Carlo and Barcelona. Dimitrov advanced to the Madrid third round with a win over Gregoire Barrere.
There is little to suggest that Dimitrov has the game necessary to take out Alcaraz on Sunday. The veteran hasn’t played all that well on clay this year, and despite Alcaraz’s hiccup in the second round he is in good–if not his best–form.
Cheryl pick: Alcaraz in 2
Ricky pick: Alcaraz in 2
(5) Andrey Rublev vs. (28) Yoshihito Nishioka
Andrey Rublev is an official Masters 1000 champion. The Russian came from behind against Holger Rune in the final of Monte-Carlo to win the biggest title of his career so far. He also made the finals in Banja Luka last week but lost to Dusan Lajovic. At this point in the European clay court season, Rublev has positioned himself as one of the in-form clay-court players.
Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka has given Rublev difficulty in their previous matches, with a 2-1 head-to-head edge. Their last match was on the hard courts of Washington D.C. last year, when Nishioka won. In fact, they have only ever met on hard courts.
Nishioka had a great start to the year. He came somewhat out of nowhere to advance to the round of 16 at the Australian Open, where he eventually lost a strange match (featuring a double-bagel and a tiebreaker) to Karen Khachanov. He has seen little in the way of match wins since that point in time. The lefty played five tournaments after Melbourne prior to Madrid with two match wins in total.
Look for Rublev to come through in this one.
Cheryl pick: Rublev in 2
Ricky pick: Rublev in 2
Charlie in 2; Rublev in 2.