Nine months ago, Andy Murray won just eight games across three sets at Wimbledon against Denis Shapovalov in a match that showed the Scot had a ways to go in his comeback from hip surgery. Revenge tasted sweet for the former World No. 1 on Tuesday evening.

Murray defeated Shapovalov 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 to reach the third round at the Mutua Madrid Open. It is the first time he has won consecutive matches since January in Sydney, where the 46-time tour-level titlist reached the final.

After good wins at the Caja Magica against former Top 10 players in Dominic Thiem and Shapovalov, it will not get any easier for Murray. Next up is a blockbuster showdown with World No. 1 Novak Djokovic — their first meeting since the Doha final in 2017 — for a place in the quarter-finals.

“In theory I should have no chance in the match. He’s obviously No. 1 in the world [and] I’m playing with a metal hip, so I shouldn’t have a chance in the match,” Murray said in his post-match interview. “It’s a great opportunity for me to see where my game’s at and to play against him again.

“We’ve had so many great battles over the years in some of the biggest tournaments in the world. We played in the final I think of all four Grand Slams, we played here in the final, and I haven’t had that opportunity to play against him for a long time. Didn’t know if I ever would get that chance, so I’ll enjoy it, I’ll have a fantastic attitude in the match, give it my best and see where I’m at.”

Murray has shown glimpses of his best form throughout the season, winning eight consecutive first-round matches. But the 34-year-old has struggled to maintain that level. For a while Tuesday, it seemed that might be the case again.

The Scot showed great movement to put extra balls in play as Shapovalov wildly sprayed balls, making an abundance of unforced errors. At 2-2 in the second set, Murray had an opportunity to break for a commanding lead, but was unable to convert.

From there, Shapovalov began to find his range and the former World No. 1 did not have an answer, allowing the Canadian to surge through the second set. But the two-time Madrid champion did not go down without a fight.

Up 3-2 in the decider, Murray hit a sensational forehand passing shot that sent Shapovalov tumbling into the red dirt. And on the next point, the lefty cut the margins too fine on a forehand up the line, ceding the break. Murray took full advantage and with his fourth break of the match, he triumphed after two hours and nine minutes.

“I trained very hard the past four or five weeks and got my game in good shape. My movement has been so much better than where it was at the beginning of the year and it makes a huge difference to my whole game,” Murray said. “It allows me to make different decisions on the court. My movement won me that match tonight. I defended so many points. He has so much power and I managed to defend lots of points and that won the match for me, so I was really happy with that.”

Speaking to Murray’s great defense was his ‘Steal score’, a new metric that reflects how often a player wins a point from a defensive position. Murray ‘stole’ 31 points while Shapovalov stole just nine. Murray’s outstanding defense also nullified the Canadian’s significant edge in the Balance of Power, which saw the left-hander in offensive positions 34 per cent of the match compared to 20 per cent for Murray. (Learn more about Balance of Power and Conversion & Steal scores.)

Next up will be his 37th ATP Head2Head meeting against Djokovic, who leads their rivalry 25-11. The pair’s seven most recent meetings have come in finals. Djokovic had plenty of positive things to say about Murray and his determination in returning from hip surgery.

“He’s moving well, playing better and better. It’s really fantastic to see, because he’s an important player for our game. He’s made his mark in the history of our sport by winning multiple Slams and gold medals and [reaching] No. 1 of the world. He’s one of the most important names that we have,” Djokovic said.

“To have him still compete is great, and to have him even play at [a] high level as the time goes by is impressive, considering the surgery and what he has been through in the past few years. His resilience and fighting spirit is really inspiring.”

The Rafa Nadal Foundation Center has opened a third location — this one in Madrid — to provide at-risk children with educational and sports activities as well as other support.

The foundation opened its first centre in Palma de Mallorca in 2014 and another in Valencia in 2019. This location will be in San Fermin, with the sports activities for the kids being held at the Caja Magica, home of the Mutua Madrid Open.

“Today has been an intense but fantastic day. Happy to inaugurate the new Rafa Nadal Foundation Center in Madrid in the San Fermín neighborhood, where we will support children in vulnerable situations through sports, educational activities and psychosocial support,” Nadal wrote on Instagram. “Thank you @endesa for being our ally in this project and thanks to all of you who have made it a reality.

“Very happy to say that the @frnadal continues to advance in its intervention, with firm and confident steps, with commitment, rigor and professionalism.”

 

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The new centre was inaugurated on Thursday with Nadal among those in attendance. Nadal’s wife, María Francisca Perelló, who is the director of the foundation, was also there alongside Begona Villacis, the deputy mayor of Madrid, and Jose Bogas, the CEO of Endesa.

The new Rafa Nadal Foundation Center will provide care for about 50 children from five to 17 years old for whom the services are recommended.

Did You Know?
Nadal has long been known for his philanthropic work, and in 2011 he was named the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year in the ATP Awards.

The newest member of the Top 10 in the ATP Rankings showed on Tuesday that he can scrap out a win even when he’s not playing at that elite level for stretches. At the Mutua Madrid Open, Carlos Alcaraz spent much of his opening match behind in the set score but still claimed a relatively routine victory over Nikoloz Basilashvili, 6-3, 7-5.

Seeking a Spanish double following his Barcelona title, Alcaraz took some time to find his footing on home soil in the opening set but quickly went through the gears to turn a 1-3 deficit into a one-set lead. He twice trailed by a break in the second but again raced through the finish line by taking the final four games of the match, denying Basilashvili’s attempt to serve out the set in the process.

“I think I played really well. This is a tough opponent. He plays really hard,” Alcaraz said post-match. “I think that the first match in every tournament is tough, but I was focussed from the beginning to the end and I’m really happy to get into the next round.”

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While Alcaraz has built his lofty reputation on a powerful baseline game, he used his speed and expert defending to frustrate his opponent on Manolo Santana Stadium as he sank his teeth into the up-and-down match. One of the points of the match came with Basilashvili serving to stay in the opening set at 3-5, 0/30. After Alcaraz covered just about every inch of the stadium court in a lengthy rally, he created three set points by fighting off an overhead for a lob winner.

While the aggressive Basilashvili won the Balance of Power battle in the match, playing 23 per cent of his shots in attack compared to 21 per cent for Alcaraz, the Spaniard was far superior in converting points from winning positions (72 per cent vs. 56 per cent) and stealing points from defense (44 per cent vs. 28 per cent). (Learn more about Balance of Power and Conversion & Steal scores.)

The 18-year-old, who turns 19 on Thursday, will next face the winner of ninth seed Cameron Norrie’s Wednesday matchup against John Isner. By reaching the last 16, he has already secure a career-best result at the ATP Masters 1000 event. Alcaraz was ranked No. 120 entering Madrid one year ago, when he lost to Rafael Nadal in the second round of his tournament debut.

“I think I’m more mature now,” he said, looking back to his last appearance in the Spanish capital. “One year is not too much time to get mature but I think I’m a different player, different person now. I manage the nerves better than before and I think now I’m ready to play these kinds of matches in these kind of stadiums in front of a lot of people. I’m feeling comfortable in these types [of matches].”

Alcaraz’s run to the Barcelona title — in which he saved two match points against Alex de Minaur in the semi-finals — earned him a place in the Top 10 for the first time, and he now seeks a second ATP Masters 1000 title on the season following his Miami triumph.

Novak Djokovic is moving in the right direction.

The World No. 1 admitted he was pleased with his performance Tuesday against Gael Monfils at the Mutua Madrid Open. It was just a second-round win for the Serbian, but it could prove an important one.

“I would probably rate it as the best performance of the year,” Djokovic said.

The three-time Madrid champion is now 18-0 against Monfils, the former World No. 6. Not only did Djokovic defeat the Frenchman in straight sets, but he was undeterred by a slight rain interruption in the first set.

“I felt very good on the court. [The] interruption probably helped me a bit more than him,” Djokovic said. “Conditions of the training days in the past three days were different than what we experienced tonight. It was slower, and obviously because of the rain it was heavier court and [there was] more clay.”

Djokovic added of his effort: “[It was] just generally [a] very, very good performance. I’m very pleased, considering that up to today I was not playing my best tennis in the few tournaments that I played this year and still kind of finding my rhythm, finding my groove.”

It was not long ago that there was concern for Djokovic fans when the 34-year-old made a slow start to his clay-court season. The World No. 1 lost his opening match in Monte Carlo and nearly was upset in his opening match in Belgrade.

But Djokovic advanced to the final at his home event, winning three matches in a deciding set. And now he carries momentum into his third-round match at the Caja Magica.

“It’s hard to compare the matches obviously. Here is altitude, different conditions. In Belgrade, I played [the] final coming off from three matches where I played long three sets, and physically [I was] a little bit exhausted and drained,” Djokovic said. “Unfortunately in the third set that was deciding factor, to lose the match.

“But here, first match of the tournament, I had a week, 10 days to get ready for this match, and for this tournament I have done everything I possibly can to build my fitness and also improve on all aspects of the game, on the court. I’m really glad that it paid off, because I felt good on the court. It’s the right process, and it’s the right direction.”

The Mutua Madrid Open second round will conclude on Wednesday, with Rafael Nadal, defending champion Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas all set to open their campaigns on Manolo Santana Stadium. Three men’s singles matches also feature on Court Arantxa Sanchez, with seeded players Jannik Sinner, Diego Schwartzman and Roberto Bautista Agut in action.

Four doubles quarter-final places will also be booked on Tuesday at the ATP Masters 1000 event.

View Singles Draw | View Doubles Draw | View Schedule

[3] Rafael Nadal [ESP] vs. Miomir Kecmanovic (SER)

While Nadal recovered from a rib injury he sustained in Indian Wells, the consistent Kecmanovic carried on with his stellar season. The Serbian entered Madrid on the heels of six straight ATP Tour quarter-final runs, and went one step further last week to reach the Munich semi-finals. He booked his second ATP Head2Head meeting against Nadal with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Alexander Bublik.

Nadal, a five-time champion in Madrid, is seeking a record-tying 37th ATP Masters 1000 title. But after a six-week layoff, he is keeping his expectations in check.

“I have improved compared to when I arrived here [in Madrid], but I still have ups and downs, because it’s been a long time. It’s going to be a difficult week,” Nadal said ahead of the tournament. “That’s the reality. We have to be calm, we have to accept that things are going to be far away from perfection, but then onwards we just have to fight. I’m recovered. I feel good.”

Nadal will put his 20-1 season record on the line against Kecmanovic, who is a very strong 22-9 on the year himself. Nadal won the pair’s only previous meeting in Acapulco in 2020.

The Spaniard is currently in his 867th consecutive week inside the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings, spending more than half of that time at No. 1 (209 weeks) or No. 2 (370 weeks).

Most Consecutive Weeks In Top 10

*Does not include 22 weeks during 2020 when ATP Rankings were frozen due to the pandemic.

[2] Alexander Zverev (GER) vs. Marin Cilic (CRO)

Two-time Madrid champion Zverev holds a 7-1 ATP Head2Head edge over Cilic and will look to extend a seven-match win streak after dropping their first meeting in 2015. Each of their past five matches have come at either an ATP Masters 1000 event or at the Nitto ATP Finals, with their most recent meeting coming at the 2018 year-end event.

A recent semi-finalist on the clay in Monte Carlo, Zverev is seeking a bounce-back performance after an early defeat to Holger Rune as the top seed last week in Munich. Cilic is also playing his third clay-court event of the season, and enters the second round behind a 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 win over Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

Prior to this year’s event, 2017 and 2021 Madrid champ Zverev reflected on his title run one year ago: “It was an incredible tournament,” he said. “For me, I enjoyed it so much because I had so many great matches in general.

“Obviously the final, lifting the trophy is the ultimate satisfaction. But the matches I had with Rafa, with Dominic, with Nishikori, with Berrettini in the final, those are just such enjoyable moments. I think the matches themselves were so much fun to play in.”

[4] Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) vs. [WC] Lucas Pouille (FRA)

Tsitsipas followed his second straight Monte Carlo title with a run to the Barcelona quarter-finals, where he fell in three sets to Carlos Alcaraz. The Greek can complete a three-surface trifecta of wins against France’s Lucas Pouille on Tuesday. The pair have previously met on grass and hard courts, with Tsitsipas a straight-sets winner in Halle (2018) and Marseille (2021).

The 28-year-old Pouille, a former World No. 10, is competing in his fourth tour-level event of the year. After playing in the Australian Open, he made two home-nation appearances in Montpellier and Marseille, reaching the quarter-finals in the latter before bowing out to eventual champion Andrey Rublev in three sets. The wild card World No. 174 contested two ATP Challenger Tour events in April, reaching the quarter-finals at the Open Comunidad de Madrid.

Tsitsipas was a 2019 finalist in Madrid ATP Masters 1000, beating Nadal in the semis but losing to Novak Djokovic in the final. If recent form holds, he’ll have a good chance of repeating or bettering that result this week. 

“I’ve had some good results on clay. I want to keep rolling the way I’ve been rolling the last couple of weeks,” he said. “My ambitions are very high and I want to give it another go this week.”

With fond memories of the Madrid tournament and the city itself, the Greek said winning the title in the Spanish capital is high on his list of career goals.

“Generally I think the city of Madrid has something very special about it,” he added. “Every time I come to Spain I really like the ambiance and the way people think and behave.”

Best Of The Rest

A busy day in Madrid will see seeded players competing throughout the grounds. Spanish 17th seed Roberto Bautista Agut will open play on Arantxa Sanchez Stadium against Daniel Evans, with 13th seed Diego Schwartzman taking on Grigor Dimitrov later in the day. Jannik Sinner, the Italian 10th seed, will close play on the Madrid second stadium against Alex de Minaur.

On Stadium 3, fifth seed Casper Ruud starts the day against qualifier Dusan Lajovic before 12th seed Hubert Hurkacz meets Monte Carlo finalist and home favourite Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.

In doubles action, fourth-seeded Frenchmen Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut will battle Tomislav Brkic and Nikola Cacic for a quarter-final spot, while Miami champions Hubert Hurkacz and John Isner take on Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev.

When you think about the standout performers on the ATP Tour this season, Spaniards Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal quickly spring to mind.

However, If you dig a little bit deeper, you’ll quickly come across Miomir Kecmanovic. The Serbian began the year as the World No. 69 but is competing at the Mutua Madrid Open at a career-high No. 32 following his best-ever start to a season.

The 22-year-old soared to the quarter-finals at ATP Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells and Miami in March and is currently 23-9 on the year following his opening-round win against Alexander Bublik in Madrid.

Having earned only 14 tour-level wins in 2021, Kecmanovic feels a large factor behind his remarkable improvement has been the role of coach and former World No. 3 David Nalbandian, with the pair now flourishing after teaming last February.

“He has helped me out a lot. He has changed a lot of things,” Kecmanovic told ATPTour.com. “We have worked on a lot of stuff that I didn’t notice before. The way I try to construct the points, the way I think during the points and also my shot-making. He has had a major impact in all areas really.

“Our relationship has been growing over time and we are really close now. We have an amazing time together and I am so happy he is able to be here. He is a good person to look up to. To have someone who was so successful in your corner is really cool. Especially in the tough moments that you see him cheering for you, he brings out the best in me.”

Nalbandian overcame Roger Federer to triumph in Madrid in 2007 when the Masters 1000 was played on hard. If his charge is to follow him in his footsteps this week at the clay-court event, he will have to defeat five-time champ Nadal in the second round.

Ahead of the clash, Kecamanovic revealed that he is feeling confident in his game and will look to take his recent big-match experience into his meeting against the World No. 4.

“You get a lot of confidence from those runs in America. I earned good wins against [Matteo] Berrettini, Felix [Auger-Aliassime] and [Taylor] Fritz,” Kecmanovic said. “They were all playing amazing and I also had an incredible match against Alcaraz in Miami. They give you a lot of confidence moving forward to matches such as Rafa tomorrow.

“The conditions here in Madrid are a lot faster than ‘normal’ clay, but I feel I should play better, looking at my previous results this season. I started pretty well today and hopefully I can keep it going.

Kecmanovic first rose into the spotlight in 2019, when he advanced to his first Masters 1000 quarter-final at the BNP Paribas Open before he reached the semi-finals at the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan.

When discussing his previous success, though, the Serbian quickly stressed that he feels his game is in a much stronger position now.

“I made one quarters a few years ago but I didn’t think it was well-earned like those recent events because I got dropped in at the second-round stage as a lucky loser and had a better draw than you would maybe expect at a Masters,” Kecmanovic admitted. “Now I feel I can really play with these guys.

“I have been playing a lot better in general. Everything that I was struggling with before is all coming together and all paying off. I am playing with a lot more confidence because I am winning a lot more so that makes a huge difference.”

Competing alongside Kecmanovic in Madrid is World No. 1 and countryman Novak Djokovic. The 34-year-old, who has won 86 tour-level titles, including a record 37 Masters 1000 crowns, is someone Kecmanovic has looked up to over the past decade.

“He is a big inspiration to a lot of people back home,” Kecmanovic said. “He made tennis popular and a lot of kids started playing because of him. It is amazing to have one of the best ever be from your country.

“I have come to terms that it is going to be very difficult if not impossible to repeat what he has done, so when you let that go, you start to focus on yourself. You do the best you can and go the furthest you can go.”

With Kecmanovic’s attention firmly on his own game, he will now aim to push on from his strong opening to the season and break new ground in the rest of 2022.

“The way things are going I would love to finish the year Top 20,” he revealed. “I don’t really defend many points because last year I didn’t win anything! I am in a great position and I am playing well, so why not?”

Jamie Murray and Michael Venus, teaming for the second straight ATP Tour event, won a Match Tie-break to move past brothers Stefanos Tsitsipas and Petros Tsitsipas on Tuesday at the Mutua Madrid Open. 

In a 6-2, 3-6, 10-7 victory, the eighth seeds cruised through the opening set but could not create a break chance in the second. Murray and Venus twice trailed by a mini-break in the Match Tie-break, including at 3/5, but finished well to book their place in the last 16 at the ATP Masters 1000 event.

The Briton and New Zealander also won a Match Tie-break to open their Estoril campaign last week, ultimately advancing to the semi-finals. They will next face Cameron Norrie and Tommy Paul for a Madrid quarter-final place.

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Norrie and Paul also advanced in an extra frame on Tuesday, coming from behind to defeat Marcelo Melo and Alexander Zverev, 3-6, 6-3, 10-7.

Felix Auger-Aliassime and Grigor Dimitrov managed to seal their victory in straight sets, handling Argentines Maximo Gonzalez and Diego Schwartzman, 6-3, 7-6(8). After leading by a set and a double break at 4-1 in the second, the Canadian-Bulgarian duo was pushed to a tie-break and ultimately clinched the win on its sixth match point.