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By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Monday April 24, 2023

 
Carlos Alcaraz

In 2022 the Spaniard became the youngest men's champion in Madrid Open history. This year he'll try to defend that title.

Photo Source: Getty

By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Monday, April 24 2023

The clay season kicks it up another notch this week in Madrid, where the men and women will play the first of back-top-back joint events, and the draws have been released.

Tennis Express

Full Madrid Open men’s singles draw here:


Without Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal in the mix on the men’s side, there are big opportunities for players to establish themselves as contenders on the red clay this spring. Carlos Alcaraz has already done that with his performance in Barcelona, where he successfully defended his title without dropping a set, and the Spaniard will look to solidify his alpha dog status as he attempts his next title defense. Let’s look at Alcaraz’s draw first.

Alcaraz’s Projected Path to the Title

R1 - Bye
R2 - Ruusuvuori or Humbert
R3 - [26] Dimitrov
R16 - [13] Zverev or [22] Korda
QF - [5] Rublev or [10] Khachanov
SF - [3] Ruud or [6] Rune (also [15] Musetti, [12] Hurkacz) F - [2] Medvedev or [4] Tsitsipas

Last year at Madrid, Alcaraz became the youngest player to defeat both 21-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal and 20-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic, as well as the first player to do so at the same clay-court event. He won’t have to run that gauntlet in 2023, and it’s hard to imagine him struggling to make a deep run.

Perhaps Alexander Zverev or Sebastian Korda could give him a run for his money in the round of 16? Zverev famously defeated Alcaraz at Roland-Garros last year, but Zverev hasn’t returned to top form since tearing three ligaments in his ankle in his next match at Paris, while Korda is just making his return from the wrist injury that has sidelined him since reaching the quarterfinals at the Australian Open.

It's also worthing that Andrey Rublev, Alcaraz's potential quarterfinal opponent, is 8-1 on the clay in the last two weeks with a title at Monte-Carlo. The Russian is emerging as a threat on the clay. His .651 lifetime winning percentage on the surface is actually higher than his winning percentage on hard courts (.644) and grass (.647).

Sinner Withdraws

Jannik Sinner had to pull out of Barcelona due to illness, and he has also elected to skip the Madrid Masters. Maybe that’s a good thing for the Italian, who has played 32 matches already in 2023, winning 26. A threat on any surface, Sinner has won 17 of his last 21 on red clay.

Rune Rolls On

Holger Rune, fresh off his first title of the season at Munich, where he saved four match points in the final to defeat Botic van de Zandschulp, is a looming threat for Alcaraz (and everybody else, at the bottom of the top half of the draw, but the Dane has played a lot of tennis over the last two weeks. He reached the final in Monte-Carlo, and has won eight of nine on the surface already this spring. He’s a threat to make a run, the altitude at Madrid should suit his jaw-dropping power game, but his success will depend on what he has left in the tank at the moment.

Rune will face either Alexander Bublik or Daniel Elahi Galan in the second round, after a bye, later this week. In the meantime a few days of rest should do the 19-year-old good.

First-Rounders to Watch

All seeds have a bye in round one, but there are still some intriguing matchups among the unseeded… Stan Wawrinka will face American Maxime Cressy in the first round, while highly touted Spanish wild card Martin Landaluce faces Richard Gasquet. Jordan’s Abdullah Shelbayh will fae Argentina’s Pedro Cachin, while Dominic Thiem faces Great Britain’s Kyle Edmund.

Andy Murray will face a yet to be named qualifier, while Cristian Garin and Marc-Andrea Huesler will square off.

 

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