Kyrgios, Nadal Primed For Early Battle In Madrid

Rafael Nadal has looked untouchable this clay-court season, but he could face arguably his toughest test yet early at the Mutua Madrid Open. The 29-time ATP World Tour Masters 1000 champion is seeded to meet Australian shotmaker Nick Kyrgios in the third round.

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Kyrgios, the 16^th seed in Madrid, will return to action next week after withdrawing from Estoril following the passing of his grandfather. A semi-finalist in Miami in his most recent Masters 1000 outing, Kyrgios will first need to come through an opening-round match against veteran Marcos Baghdatis and a potential second-round battle over fellow Aussie Bernard Tomic. Meanwhile, third seed Nadal could have a tricky opening match against the winner of Portugal’s Joao Sousa and Italian Fabio Fognini. Although Nadal leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head 8-3, Fognini thrives on clay and has beaten Nadal twice on this surface.

Nadal and Kyrgios are even in their FedEx ATP Head2Head at 1-1, but both matches were lengthy tussles. The Spaniard prevailed in a deciding set in their lone meeting on clay last year in Rome.

Top seed and last year’s Madrid runner-up Andy Murray will open his campaign against a wild card in Guillermo Garcia-Lopez or Marius Copil. He finds himself in a tricky quarter of the draw that could include a third round with flashy 13^th seed Lucas Pouille and quarter-final showdown with eighth seed Dominic Thiem or 12^th seed Grigor Dimitrov. Thiem upset Murray last week in the semi-finals of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell for his first victory over a World No. 1.

Second seed and defending champion Novak Djokovic will also need to be on from the start when he begins his title defence against a clay-court expert in Tommy Robredo or Nicolas Almagro. Looming ahead is a potential third-round match with 15^th seed Gael Monfils and quarter-final battle with sixth seed Kei Nishikori, who makes his debut this spring after pulling out of Barcelona with a right wrist injury.

Third seed Stan Wawrinka appears to have reversed his fortune at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events after a string of early exits last year, reaching the final at the BNP Paribas Open (l. Federer). The former Roland Garros and Monte-Carlo champion will start the week with a stern test against Benoit Paire or Pablo Carreno Busta. An in-form Jack Sock, the 14^th seed, could await him in the third round. Wawrinka’s matches won’t get any easier with a possible quarter-final against seventh seed Marin Cilic.

Other intriguing first-round matches in Madrid include ninth seed David Goffin squaring off with #NextGenATP Russian Karen Khachanov, an all-French battle pitting Monfils against Gilles Simon and #NextGenATP German Alexander Zverev facing home favourite Fernando Verdasco.