Preview: Alcaraz Meets Zverev In Madrid Final Rematch

The entirety of the remaining men’s singles field will play on Tuesday at the Mutua Madrid Open, with the fourth round set to be completed over the course of a packed day at the ATP Masters 1000.

The pick of the eight matchups is a rematch of last year’s Madrid final between Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev, with Top 10 seeds Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov also squaring off in the draw’s top half. Daniil Medvedev’s meeting with Aslan Karatsev is another highlight, while three Spaniards in addition to Alcaraz hope to advance to the quarter-finals, led by 29th seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. 

ATPTour.com looks at some of the key fourth-round matchups on the Day 9 schedule across the men’s singles draw and men’s doubles draw.

[1] Carlos Alcaraz (ESP) vs. [13] Alexander Zverev (GER)

Alcaraz dominated the 2022 Madrid final against the Zverev, capping an emphatic three-match stretch in which he defeated Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and the German. That victory clinched a trophy double for the Spaniard across Barcelona and Madrid, and the 19-year-old is now four wins away from repeating that feat this season. If he does claim the title, Alcaraz would be guaranteed to return to No. 1 the week after Rome simply by playing a match in the Italian capital.

A successful Madrid title defence would extend Alcaraz’s winning streak on home soil to 21 matches, but for the moment he is fully focussed on Zverev, who leads their ATP Head2Head 3-1 and owns two Madrid titles of his own (2018, 2021).

“I really want to play that match. We played a few times, head-to-head he is up,” Alcaraz said after beating Girgor Dimitrov to set the showdown encounter. “I really want to show my great level here in front of my home crowd. I have great memories from last year in the final but obviously I have to be really focussed in that match. I know that Sascha is a really good player, a really aggressive one with good serves. I have to show all my skills.”

While Zverev was not at his very best against Alcaraz in last year’s Madrid final, having played deep into the night each of the previous two days, he enters Tuesday’s matchup with plenty of rest. The 13th seed cruised past Hugo Grenier 6-1, 6-0 on Sunday, continuing the fine form he showed in closing out Roberto Carballes Baena in a 6-0 final set in his opening match.

“Today I felt great,” he said after beating Grenier in just 55 minutes. Zverev’s sky-high Shot Quality on both serve and return underlined his stellar performance against the Frenchman, and he will need a similar showing to stop Alcaraz in front of his home crowd.

A serve & return masterclass 👏@AlexZverev serving 🚀 and returning like a wall 🧱#TennisInsights | @atptour | @MutuaMadridOpen pic.twitter.com/4s1b7aImZg

— Tennis Insights (@tennis_insights) April 30, 2023

Beating Alcaraz in Spain is a challenge no player has been able to meet in the past two years on the ATP Tour. But Zverev has been able to conquer the World No. 2 in meetings in Acapulco (2021), Vienna (2021) and Roland Garros (2022). The German has particularly fond memories of their meeting on the Parisian clay, where he avenged his Madrid loss just three weeks later. 

“Of course with Carlos that would be a matchup people would look forward to. We played in the final here last year, played a massive match at [Roland Garros] before I got injured,” he said of his 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(7) victory.

Nearly a year has passed since that match, and Zverev has endured a long road to recovery after the ankle injury he suffered against Rafael Nadal in his very next outing. But he is beginning to rediscover the sort of form that saw him reach back-to-back semi-finals at the clay-court Grand Slam. 

The German, who is seeking his sixth quarter-final in as many Madrid appearances, is one of the few players on the ATP Tour who can match Alcaraz for power. While he may not have the speed of the Spaniard, his length serves him well in defence and gives him an advantage on serve in the matchup.

Both men will be eager to land the first strikes in the rallies, with either player more than capable of ending points at any time with one big swing. With so little separating the opponents, this match could be won on the margins, by the man who can steal just a few extra points from defensive situations.

[5] Andrey Rublev vs. [10] Karen Khachanov

Rublev and Khachanov will press pause on their successful doubles partnership this week in Madrid to break a 2-2 tie in their ATP Head2Head singles series on Tuesday. Into the doubles quarter-finals in the Spanish capital, the partners will be on opposite sides of the net for the second time this month after Rublev earned a 7-6(4), 6-2 victory against Khachanov in Monte-Carlo en route to his first ATP Masters 1000 title.

The pair is now set to meet in the Round of 16 once again at that prestigious level, with Rublev seeking his third straight win against his good friend. Rublev also carries a four-match winning streak against Top 20 opponents into the match and is one win away from equalling his career-best run to the Madrid quarter-finals last season.

Khachanov has 11 Top 10 wins on his resume, but only two on clay, most recently against Juan Martin del Potro at Roland Garros in 2019. Earlier that same season, he earned his most recent win against Rublev at Indian Wells. After three-set wins against Thiago Monteiro and Roberto Bautista Agut propelled him into the Madrid fourth round for the first time, he will now attempt to be the first man to take a set off Rublev at this edition of the tournament.

A win for Khachanov would take him past Holher Rune into eighth place in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin as he pushes for his first appearance at the Nitto ATP Finals.

Rublev expertly navigated two tricky opening matches against Stan Wawrinka and Yoshihito Nishioka to improve to 5-2 in Madrid. The road won’t get any easier in the quarter-finals for the winner of this showdown, with Alcaraz or Zverev next up.

[2] Daniil Medvedev vs. Aslan Karatsev

After beating one friend in qualifier Alexander Shevchenko on Monday, Medvedev returns to face another in Aslan Karatsev on Tuesday. Medvedev, along with Taylor Fritz, is hoping to make it four straight ATP Masters 1000 quarter-finals to start the season (Indian Wells, Miami, Monte-Carlo, Madrid), a feat that would match Milos Raonic’s 2016 effort. 

Madrid and Rome are the only two Masters 1000s at which Medvedev has not reached the quarter-finals or better, and his recent form could see him rectify that statistic within the month of May. After winning four titles in five hard-court events, including a maiden Miami crown, Medvedev reached the quarters in Monte-Carlo before his run in Madrid.

Karatsev qualified for the Madrid main-draw and has reached the fourth round with upset wins against Botic van de Zandschulp and Alex de Minaur, the latter result coming in three sets on Monday. 

The 29-year-old has a history of success against the ATP Tour’s best, sporting a 5-7 record against Top 10 opponents and a 2-3 mark against the Top 3. But he has not added a win to either tally since 2021, when he beat Medvedev in Rome. 

If he can improve to 2-1 against the World No. 3, he will find himself in the quarter-finals at an ATP Masters 1000 for the first time after falling one match short of that stage three times.

Also In Action…

Four other seeded players are in action on Tuesday, including two who will play against one another. Among the Top 10, fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas takes on Spain’s Bernabe Zapata Miralles and eighth seed Taylor Fritz meets China’s Zhang Zhizhen, who is enjoying his best run at a Masters 1000.

Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, the 29th seed, faces 17th seed Borna Coric, with the home favourite looking to back up his upset win against Holger Rune late Sunday night.

Jaume Munar — set to meet German lucky loser Daniel Altmaier — is the fourth Spanish player into the fourth round. The four home hopes in the Round of 16 is the most since 2015.

Spaniards In Madrid Round Of 16

Germany is also making some history with two lucky losers in the fourth round. Jan-Lennard Struff, who faces Argentina’s Pedro Cachin, joins Altmaier in that regard. Since the ATP Masters 1000 series began in 1990, only 15 players have reached the quarter-finals as lucky losers.

Two doubles quarter-finals are also on the Tuesday schedule. Fouth seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer meet Canadians Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov after eighth seeds Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin face Simone Bolelli and Fabrice Martin on Court 3.