Nadal, Djokovic, Murray Headline Madrid R3 Action
Nadal, Djokovic, Murray Headline Madrid R3 Action
May052016
After attending the Champions League semi-final the night before, Djokovic & Nadal turn their focus to quarter-final spots 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.
BMW Open by FWU AG doubles champions also advance on Wednesday
Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo snuck past the World No. 10 doubles team on Wednesday to become the first team to advance to the quarter-finals at the Mutua Madrid Open.
The No. 4 seeds beat American Rajeev Ram and South African Raven Klaasen 5-7, 6-3, 10-8. Dodig/Melo earned one mini-break and didn’t drop a point on serve during the match tie-break. The team will face Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi or No. 8 seeds Vasek Pospisil and Jack Sock. Huey/Mirnyi swept Daniel Nestor and Radek Stepanek 6-4, 6-4.
In first-round action, the Polish team of Lukasz Kubot and Marcin Matkowski won 6-1, 5-7, 11-9 against Fabio Fognini and Viktor Troicki. Henri Kontinen and John Peers, BMW Open by FWU AG champions on Sunday, beat Alexandr Dolgopolov and Bernard Tomic. The Fin and Aussie won 6-3, 3-6, 10-3.
30 year old wins 80 per cent of first-serve points in the win
Pablo Cuevas produced more tough clay-court tennis on Wednesday to outlast Gael Monfils and achieve his best result at the Mutua Madrid Open. The World No. 27 beat the confident Monfils 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-6(4) in two hours and 29 minutes to move into the third round. Cuevas, whose previous best in Madrid was a second-round showing, will face Australian Nick Kyrgios, who beat Stan Wawrinka earlier Wednesday.
Service breaks were at a premium during the second-round contest. Cuevas earned two, Monfils, just one. But neither player relented in the third set. In the final tie-break, Cuevas earned a mini-break at 4-3 and later served out the match.
The Uruguayan had never beaten Monfils before Wednesday, falling in all four previous contests. But he’s had plenty of other success, including two clay-court titles this season, the Brasil Open and the Rio Open presented by Claro. In Rio de Janeiro, Cuevas beat Nadal in three sets en route to the title.
The 30 year old lost to Kyrgios during their only previous meeting, earlier this year at the Australian Open. Monfils, who made the final of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, fell to 8-2 on clay this season with the loss. Cuevas improved to 15-3 on the red dirt.
It hasn’t all been about tennis for players this week. ATPWorldTour.com provides a recap of the highlights.
Follow all the latest off-court action on MyATP! Download the app for iPhone or Android or visit MyATP.com.
Mutua Madrid Open – Madrid, Spain
Spanish tennis legends Manolo Santana, the tournament director, Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario, and Manuel Orantes were honoured in an on-court ceremony Tuesday, commemorating their inscription into the tournament’s Hall of Fame. The event was attended by Rafael Nadal, International Tennis Hall of Fame CEO Todd Martin and Spanish greats, including Albert Costa, Alberto Berasategui and Alex Corretja.
Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga paid homage to the history of the game by taking a tour of the Hall of Fame. View Photos
With the help of Rafael Nadal, Feliciano Lopez and Marat Safin, €55,000 was raised to help Syrian refugees through UNHCR (The UN agency for refugees), CEAR (Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid), UNICEF and Mensajeros de la Paz. In a fun hour of exhibition tennis, two teams of tennis stars and celebrities entertained the fans on Court Manolo Santana. Read & Watch
World No. 1 Novak Djokovic joined an illustrious group of recipients, including Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andre Agassi, John McEnroe, Pete Sampras, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Pele, Johan Cruyff, Lionel Messi, Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps in receiving the prestigious Marca Leyenda (Marca Legend) award. Read
With help from a host of spectators and ATP World Tour stars Stan Wawrinka, Kei Nishikori, Tomas Berdych and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the Mutua Madrid Open made history on Sunday morning by setting a new Guinness World Record for the most people bouncing tennis balls on racquets at the same time for 10 seconds. Read & Watch
Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco joined Genie Bouchard for a cooking class on site, while Juan Monaco helped out with the draw ceremony. Watch Video/View Photo
Novak Djokovic, Boris Becker, Manolo Santana, Teymuraz Gabashvili, Pablo Cuevas, Joao Sousa and Bruno Soares attended the Players’ Party at Platea Market in Madrid. Watch Video
Taylor Fritz enjoyed a visit to the home of Real Madrid, Santiago Bernabéu Stadium (View Photo) and returned on Wednesday to watch the Champions League semi-final (View Photo)
A few players even tried their hand at paddle tennis at Caja Magica, including Sam Querrey (View Photo), Djokovic and his younger brother Marko Djokovic (View Photo).
World No. 1 wins second-round clash
Novak Djokovic defeated #NextGen player Borna Coric 6-2, 6-4 at the Mutua Madrid Open on Wednesday to score his first win in the Spanish capital since 2012. Djokovic fell to Grigor Dimitrov in his opening match in 2013, and did not take part in the past two editions of the event. This week, he is bidding to become the first man to win 29 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events. The Serb is currently tied with Rafael Nadal with 28 titles.
Djokovic was pushed by the 19-year-old Coric in the pair’s first meeting, but controlled the run of play from the baseline. The World No. 1 only dropped five points on serve in the first set and closed out the win in 78 minutes with the lone service break of the second set.
The 2011 Madrid champion improved to 17-6 at the event and will next face Roberto Bautista Agut, who edged fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 in two hours and 27 minutes. Djokovic is undefeated against Bautista Agut in three FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings.
Novak Djokovic returned from a surprise defeat in Monte Carlo to progress at the Madrid Open but fourth seed Stan Wawrinka lost to old foe Nick Kyrgios.
Top seed Djokovic, 28, eased into round three by beating Croatian Borna Coric 6-2 6-4 in an hour and 18 minutes.
The 20-year-old Kyrgios saw off his Swiss rival 7-6 (9-7) 7-6 (6-2).
Last year, he was given a suspended 28-day ban and $25,000 (£17,250) fine after making lewd remarks about Wawrinka’s girlfriend during a match.
World number one Djokovic, beaten by 55th-ranked Jiri Vesely last month, won 85% of points on his first serve against the 19-year-old Coric, who is nicknamed ‘Mini Djokovic’ because of his playing style.
The Serb plays 15th seed Roberto Bautista Agut on Thursday, while British second seed Andy Murray faces Frenchman Gilles Simon from 11:00 BST.
Never want to miss the latest tennis news? You can now add this sport and all the other sports and teams you follow to your personalised My Sport home.
Stan Wawrinka and Nick Kyrgios square off on day four
Eighth seed Tomas Berdych, the 2012 runner-up, swept past qualifier Denis Istomin 6-3, 6-3 in 69 minutes on Wednesday for a place in the Mutua Madrid Open third round. Having recorded his 20th match win at the tournament (20-11), Berdych goes onto face ninth seed David Ferrer or qualifier Denis Kudla.
Later, Roberto Bautista Agut, the No. 15 seed, battled hard to beat fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez for the first time, 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 in two hours and 57 minutes. Lopez had previously beaten Bautista Agut at the 2014 Rogers Cup in Toronto and this year’s BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.