Djokovic, Nadal, Murray Feature Thursday In Madrid

Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal, who have combined to win 12 of the last 13 ATP Masters 1000 titles, headline the Mutua Madrid Open third round Thursday. All three former Madrid champions are scheduled to play on Manolo Santana, with Murray meeting No. 16 seed Gilles Simon in the first match at 12 pm. Murray is 3-0 against Simon in Madrid with two wins on clay and another in the 2008 final, which marked the last hard-court match at the event.

In the following men’s match, World No. 1 Djokovic looks to break his tie with Dominic Thiem for the most wins on tour this season. The Serb is 29-2 entering his encounter with No. 15 seed Roberto Bautista Agut, who is also in the Top 5 with 22 victories in 2016. Men’s play concludes on Manolo Santana when Nadal meets Sam Querrey. Nadal has won 11 straight matches overall and 15 in a row against Americans. The four-time champion is undefeated against active American players (19-0) and Americans on clay (12-0), though Querrey won a set in all three of their matches.

A pair of matches between Top 10 players highlights the schedule on Arantxa Sanchez. Eighth-ranked Tomas Berdych has lost seven of his past eight matches against others in the Top 10. His opponent, ninth-ranked David Ferrer, has lost seven straight. In the other Top-10 match-up, World No. 7 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga meets Milos Raonic, who replaced Richard Gasquet at No. 10 in this week’s Emirates ATP Rankings. Now No. 12, Gasquet takes a surprising 6-0 FedEx ATP Head 2 Head record into his match against sixth-ranked Kei Nishikori on Estadio 3.

Seven of the Top 8 doubles seeds are also in action on Wednesday, led by Indian Wells, Miami and Monte-Carlo champions Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut. The Frenchmen are bidding to become the first doubles team or singles player to sweep the first four ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles. Mahut is also one of four men who could be the doubles World No. 1 on May 9 along with current No. 1 Jamie Murray, No. 2 Marcelo Melo and No. 5 Horia Tecau.