Two years after his last appearance, when he gave the sensation to give the victory to his countryman Carlos Alcaraz, dominator of the tournament in the recent biennium, Rafa Nadal returns to Madrid to play the Mutua Madrid Open 2024 in an unusual season that the Balearic travels with some doubts and some suspicions at last.
In a certain air of farewell, with predictions of the closing of an era and new times on the scenethis Madrid Masters 1000 exploded with Nadal and Alcaraz as headliners, with the Italian Jannik Sinner as a great sensation in the year of change and without Novak Djokovic, who is also starting to show signs of anxiety.
Nadal represents the essence of the Mutua Madrid Open. He faces his twentieth participation in Madrid. Since 2003, when the competition was played in winter and on a fast track, until 2022, without interruption, except for 2020, canceled due to covid. In 2023, a cursed year for the winner of twenty-two Grand Slams, he pulled out of the event for the first time in his career. Come back to this course. When changing the chip. With a new idea, with a different plan, adapted to new times.
No one has won more times in Madrid than Nadal. The Spaniard has won five titles, the last in 2017. Two more with Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic and three more with Carlos Alcraz, Alexander Zverev and Andy Murray.
Rafael Nadal arrives at the Caja Mágica with just five matches so far in 2024. Three wins and two losses in just two contests. In Brisbane, at the beginning of the year, when he started again after almost a year without playing, and later, in Barcelona, after recovering from a hip problem.
Nadal started his journey with a draw main event of the current edition of Madrid from the first round, before the American boy Darwin Blanch, 16 years old who played only one match as a professional, on the ATP circuit. If he progresses, the Spaniard will be reunited with Australian Alex de Minaur, who was with him last week in Barcelona.
The winner of 22 Grand Slams and Carlos Alcaraz will not meet until a hypothetical final. The reigning Madrid Masters 1000 champion is looking to return to action in Madrid, having suffered an injury to his right arm that has kept him out of recent tournaments. The Murcian had to withdraw from the Monte Carlo Masters 1000 and also from Barcelona.
He is in Madrid and trained at Caja Mágica. But with some caution and protected arm. He traveled the circuit with fifteen victories and four defeats. Winner of the Miami Masters 1000 after defeating Daniil Medvedev in the final and Jannik Sinner in the semifinals, he lost to Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, German Alexander Zverev, Chilean Nicolas Jarry and Brazilian Thiago Monteiro, forcing him to withdraw. .
2024 has not been an easy year for Alcaraz, who has been completely plagued by unwanted injuries. He will now face his fourth appearance at the Mutua Madrid Open, where he has always shone. The first time meant his staging, he came of age. He collided with Nadal in a generational duel, a premonition. Then he came back to win. He won in 2022 and again in 2023.
“I hope to play in Madrid every year and we are doing everything possible to get there. I don’t want to take it for granted but after the last days, I dare to say that if everything continues like this, we will be there,” said Alcaraz who, under normal conditions, will begin his journey to the Madrid Masters 1000 in the second round against with the winner of the match between Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech and Kazakh Alexander Shevchenko the Spaniard is challenging to become the first player to win this event three times in a row.
For the second year in a row, Novak Djokovic left Madrid. It has not been an easy season for the world number one, who is starting to adapt to his new situation and sees how it will not be easy for him to keep up with the youngsters with potential. Without any title so far in 2024, he aims to protect his strength for Rome and, above all, for Roland Garros.
The absence of the Balkan, who last played at the Caja Mágica in the 2022 semifinals, eliminated by Carlos Alcaraz, leaves the Italian Jannik Sinner, world number two and the fittest tennis player of the course, as the first favorite. The young man from San Cándido, who bids Alcaraz for the throne of the future, has lost only two games so far. Against the Murcian, in Indian Wells and with the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas in Monte Carlo, a match he won and he released the physical burden.
However, this year’s transalpine winner of the Australian Open, the Miami Masters 1000 and the Rotterdam tournament did not shine in Madrid to raise his career merit sheet to thirteen. This is the third time he has entered the Caja Mágica, where he has yet to make it past the round of 16 which he achieved in 2022.
German Alexander Zverev, two-time champion and a finalist, almost always offers a better performance. He will start against the Croatian Brona Coric or a player from the previous one.
Norwegian Casper Ruud, new champion in Barcelona,a player to be reckoned with. A clay specialist, the world number six has eleven trophies, ten of them on clay. He reached the semi-finals in Madrid three seasons ago, but was eliminated in the final by Italian Matteo Berrettin, who is not in this edition, was overtaken in Zverev’s bid for the title.
Tsitsipas exploded in Madrid as another of the demands. The gravel season stepped up its performance and brightened a year that had been gray so far. Winner of Monte Carlo, the first Masters 1000 over this season, and runner-up in Barcelona, he showed signs of recovery. He was a finalist in Madrid in 2019. Only Novak Djokovic kept him from the title.
The Greek seems to offer more guarantees than the Russian Daniil Medvedev, who has not hidden his rejection of clay competitions. The Muscovite, ranked fourth in the world, this year’s finalist at the Australian Open and Indian Wells, will play for the fifth time in Madrid. Although he won his first tournament on land in Rome in 2023, he has yet to make it past the round of 16 at the Caja Mágica.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Robert Maynard, and I am a passionate journalist with experience in sports writing. For the last few years, I have been writing for Today Times Live. My main focus has been on sports-related stories and features. With my strong background in journalism and extensive knowledge of the industry, I am able to provide readers with well-crafted pieces that are both informative and engaging.
