The big guns are in out in force this week for the ATP Madrid tennis tournament an important build up to the French Open. Roger Federer pulled out ahead of the event but even if he had stayed in he wouldn’t’ have made a difference to the dominance of Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal at the head of the field.
The Mutua Madrid only moved to clay in 2009 and with the French Open on the cards this month, the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Madrid event is a very high profile affair. This is one of the ATP World Tour 1000 events that Djokovic has actually had a tricky time in getting his hands on the title from. He has won it just the once before and that was back in 2011 so is on a four visit winless streak at the event.
Djokovic has five titles to his name this season, but his transition to clay didn’t go too well as he was surprisingly knocked out in the second round of the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters ATP World Tour 1000 Masters event against Jiri Vesely. Not many would have predicted that but Djokovic is the kind of man you aren’t going to keep down for very long. Overall ahead of Madrid he had posted a W28 L2 match record for the season (12-1 in ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events).
The big threat to Djokovic this time around at Madrid is Rafael Nadal. The clay master is back on form which is great news for the game. He is a three time previous Madrid Champion, including having won two of the last three editions of the event. After taking advantage of Djokovic’s exit at Monte Carlo, Nadal went all the way to the title, beating Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka on the way. He followed that up last week with a win Barcelona on clay as well. He has faced Djokovic twice this season though and lost both meetings with the Serbian.
What of Andy Murray? He is the reigning Madrid champion (his second title there) but it has been a season which has failed to ignite for him for one reason or another. After losing the Australian Open final to Djokovic, Murray has not been back to the final of an event this term, carding a W13 L4 record for the term. That’s why he’s out in the betting prices compared to Nadal and Djokovic. Nadal and Murray are in the same half of the draw so would clash in the final four.
ATP Madrid Tennis Betting odds
Novak Djokovic 5/6, Rafael Nadal 5/2, Andy Murray 10/1, Stan Wawrinka 18/1, Kei Nishikori 20/1, Milos Raonic 25/1, Tomas Berdych 33/1, Gael Monfils 40/1, David Ferrer 66/1, Juan Martin del Potro 66/1.
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