Tennis: Carlos Alcaraz, Rafael Nadal, Aryna Sabalenka in search of benchmarks, Arthur Fils innovates… What you need to know about the tournament in Madrid

The WTA 1000 and Masters 1000 in Madrid (Spain) start on Wednesday with open draws as the clay court specialists are not at their best.

Who will be able to shake Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas, who dominated the start of the season on clay and who met in the finals of Monte-Carlo and Barcelona? In the absence of Novak Djokovic, who is skipping the Masters 1000 in Madrid but plans to play in Rome, and with the fitness levels of Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz uncertain, the tournament in the Spanish capital, which opens on Wednesday, April 24, promises to be indecisive. The same goes for the women, whose main draw began on Tuesday, where Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka have been more challenging in recent weeks, especially Elena Rybakine, winner in Stuttgart.

Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz in search of benchmarks…

At home and on their favorite surface, the two Spaniards will have to overcome the pain that prevents them from playing at their best level. Long troubled by his hip, and more recently by his back, Rafael Nadal returned to Barcelona last week, three months after his premature exit from the Australian Open. In Catalonia, he won in the first round against Italian Flavi Cobolli (6-2, 6-3), but then lost to Alex De Minaur, the 11th player in the world (7-5, 6-1). He could get revenge on the Australian in the second round of Madrid, but before that he will have to beat the very young Darwin Blanch at 16 to enter the race. The American, the semi-finalist of the junior Roland-Garros in 2023, was not even born when Rafael Nadal already won his third title at Roland-Garros, and he will play only his second match in the main round against the “Taurus from Manakor”.

After withdrawing from Monte-Carlo and Barcelona due to forearm pain, Carlos Alcaraz could return to Madrid. Asked at the press conference, the Spaniard confided: “I don’t want to say anything at the moment, but if my feelings are confirmed, I’ll probably go to court. (…) I trained a little more intensively, things went pretty well, the feelings were good.”

The outgoing winner was exempted from the first round thanks to the world ranking, and he will try to return the good feelings in the second round against the Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech, or the opponent in the first round, the Kazakh Alexander Shevchenko.

…Aryna Sabalenka too

The outgoing winner in Madrid, the world number two has struggled to build on a winning streak since her Australian Open title in January and does not arrive in the Spanish capital full of confidence. Eliminated as soon as she entered the fight in Dubai, she then lost in the round of 16 in Indian Wells and in the third round in Miami. The Belarusian woman is going through a difficult period after the death of her ex-partner on March 18 in Florida. For her first tournament on clay in Stuttgart, where she reached the finals in the previous three editions, she was eliminated in the quarterfinals by the last Wimbledon winner Marketa Vondrousova (3-6, 6-3, 7-5). . Winner of two of the last three titles in Madrid, she could take revenge on the Czech Republic at the same stage of the competition in Madrid.

World number one Iga Swiatek is also looking for triumphs in 2024. Defeated in the 3rd round of the Australian Open (her worst result at this Grand Slam since 2019), she won the WTA 1000 in Qatar and Indian Wells. But she lost in the semi-finals in Dubai, in the round of 16 in Miami, not forgetting the lost semi-final in Stuttgart, where she was never defeated. She will try to win her first crown in Madrid, after being dominated in the final by… Aryna Sabalenka in 2023.

Three holders among the French

Along with regulars Ugo Humbert, seeded 13, and Adrian Mannarino, seeded 19, Arthur Fils will experience this status for the first time at the Masters 1000. Seeded number 31, the Frenchman will therefore be exempt from the first round, and will meet the winner of the match between Daniel Altmaier and Martin Landaluce for his entry into the race. In difficulties since the beginning of the season, he won several places in the world rankings thanks to the quarter-finals in Barcelona. By picking up a few more points, he could secure the same seeded status at Roland-Garros, which would give him a more comfortable draw for the first round.

All in all, only eight Frenchmen are present in the main draw, also with Arthur Rinderknech, Gaël Monfils and Luc Van Assche, as they are among the 10 entries in the qualifiers just two got a ticket for the first round. Corentin Moutet, defeated Abdullah Shelbayh (6-2, 6-2). However, there are concerns about the Frenchman, who felt a sharp pain in the back of his thigh in the middle of the second set.

Richard Gasquet defeated the Croat Duje Ajduković in two sets (6-2, 7-5) and confirmed his ticket to the tournament. In the first round, he will meet Lorenzo Sonega, for the 1000th match in his career.

Caroline Garcia continues to lead the French women

If they will not be numerous on the men’s chart, Tricolors are even rarer on the women’s chart. Along with Diana Parry’s package, only Caroline Garcia, Clara Burel and Varvara Gracheva (from the qualifiers) appear. Océane Dodin, Fiona Ferro, Jessica Ponchet lost in the qualifiers.