By Mike McIntyre
The Mutua Madrid Open, or Madrid Masters, opens the month of May on the ATP World Tour and sets the scene for a frantic three weeks of clay court action leading up to the French Open.
Two-time and defending champion Rafael Nadal will look to extend his 34 match winning streak on clay and will face either Marcos Baghdatis or a qualifier in his opening match. Nadal has been his usual brilliant self thus far in 2011 on his favorite surface and will be the leading candidate to walk away with the trophy here in Madrid.
Rafa will face a stiff challenge in the third round where it appears likely he will face Juan Martin Del Potro who is unseeded in the draw. Nadal leads their head-to-head by a narrow margin of 5-3 but only one of those meetings was on clay.
Jurgen Melzer, the eighth seed could be a quarter-final opponent while either Robin Soderling or Roger Federer will probably see Nadal in the semis.
Novak Djokovic will be looking to extend his own winning streak that has seen him go undefeated since a loss to Roger Federer back in November at the ATP World Tour finals. The Djoker opens against either big serving Kevin Anderson or enigmatic Ernests Gulbis. His clay court record a year ago was 10-4 which is respectable but not spectacular. As evidenced by his final showing in Belgrade this past week, Djokovic appears ready to transition onto the dirt without any problems. A final showdown with Nadal would be an epic match, pitting their two different types of winning streaks on the line.
Third seeded Roger Federer did not have any favors bestowed upon him with the draw in Madrid. The two-time champion (2006, 2009) will potentially face rising Canadian star Milos Raonic in the second round. If Milos has recovered from back issues he suffered while playing back-to-back matches in Estoril he could be a very difficult early round opponent.
Fernando Verdasco and the Swede, Robin Soderling, are also in Roger’s quarter of the draw and have the clay court skills to challenge the now vulnerable Swiss star.
Soderling could face Alexandr Dolgopolov in the second round which would make for a great early round encounter. While Dolgopolov experienced his breakthrough moment earlier this year at the Aussie Open on hard court he considers clay his favorite surface.
The final quarter of the draw to mention holds both Andy Murray and Tomas Berdych. Seeded fourth and seventh respectively they both have the first round off. Nikolay Davydenko, Gael Monfils and clay court specialist Juan Monaco could trouble either of the big seeds in this section.
Some first round matches worth watching include Monfils against Ivo Karlovic and his monstrous serve, former top-ten players Ivan Ljubicic and Gilles Simon facing each other and the all-American match of Mardy Fish against John Isner. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Nicolas Almagro should also offer-up a great opening tilt.
For a change a Djokovic vs. Nadal final is the match-up most tennis fans want to see on the last day of play. How will Djokovic, the world’s best player at the moment, fare against the world’s best clay court player in Nadal? Stay tuned to find out!