Alcaraz Eyeing A Third Straight Title in Madrid Masters Event
Two-time Defending Champion Alcaraz Leads the ATP Mutua Madrid Open Odds
Withdrawal of Djokovic Could Open Things Up In Madrid Masters Event
The ATP 1000 event in Madrid lost one of the top contenders when three-time champion Novak Djokovic withdrew from the tournament. The ATP Mutua Madrid Open odds have top-seeded Jannik Sinner and two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz among the front-runners.
Rafael Nadal, a five-time champion in Madrid, is also in the field and would face No. 10 seed Alex de Minaur if he wins his first match.
Djokovic is the only top-10 player not entered in the field. The tournament still has three players who have won the tournament more than once with Alcaraz and Nadal joined by two-time winner Alexander Zverev.
This is one of the clay-court events used to prepare players to make a run at the French Open title.
When looking at the tennis odds, Alcaraz leads the way at +160 in the odds of winning the French Open. Nadal comes in at +550, and Holger Rune is next at +800.
The tournament begins on Wednesday, with all 32 seeded players receiving first-round byes. The champion will be crowned on May 5.
Next up on the tennis schedule is another ATP 1000 event in Rome.
Sinner Takes Aim At No. 1
With Djokovic out of the tournament, No. 2 Jannik Sinner has a chance to close the gap while attempting to stay ahead of No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz.
Sinner has reached the quarterfinals in every tournament this year with wins at the Australian Open as well as the Rotterdam and Miami. Sinner could meet fellow Italian Lorenzo Sonego in his first match. Sinner is 4-0 against Sonego, but two of the three matches went the distance.
Sinner is the No. 2 pick at +230 in the ATP Mutua Madrid Open odds.
ATP Australian Jordan Thompson is the first-seeded player Sinner could meet, along with Nicolas Jarry and Karen Khachanov, other players who could stand between Sinner and another quarterfinal appearance.
No. 5 seed Casper Ruud, Grigor Dimitrov, Adrian Mannarino, and Cameron Norrie are seeded players who could meet Sinner in the quarterfinals. Sinner and Ruud haven’t played since 2021.
Alcaraz Going For a 3-Peat
Alcaraz can become the first player to win the Madrid Open in three straight years. It not a surprise to see him leading the way in the ATP Mutua Madrid Open odds.
Nadal was the only back-to-back winner before Alcaraz accomplished the feat but his quest to make it three titles in a row ended with a loss to Andy Murray in the 2015 singles final.
Alcaraz is priced at +175 to make it three titles in a row in Madrid.
There could be a potential third-round matchup against Lorenzo Musetti. Alcaraz won 6-3, 6-3 in Miami in the most recent meeting.
Ugo Humbert or Jan-Lennard Struff may meet up with Alcaraz with a spot in the quarterfinals on the line.
Things could get interesting in the quarterfinals, with No. 11 seed Holger Rune and No. 7 Andrey Rublev among the leading contenders to be in that portion of the draw. Rune (+1800) and Rublev (+3000) are viewed as darkhorse candidates to win in Madrid thanks to being in the same portion of the draw as Alcaraz.
Rune and Alcaraz have split their two meetings, while Alcaraz topped Rublev in round-robin play at the 2023 ATP Finals in their only previous meeting.
Will Nadal Make a Deep Run?
No. 3 seed Daniil Medvedev has a tough road in Madrid with Stefanos Tsitsipas, fresh off a run to the final at Barcelona, joining Americans Ben Shelton, Frances Tiafoe, and Sebastian Korda joining Alex de Minaur, Alexander Bublik, and Jiri Lehecka are the other seeded players in Medvedev’s portion of the draw.
Medvedev and Tsitsipas have met 13 times with Medvedev winning nine of those tennis matches. At least one set in seven of those meetings went to a tiebreaker.
There is a pretty noteworthy unseeded player in this quarter of the draw as Nadal, the best clay-court player in men’s tennis history, plays 16-year-old American Darwin Blanch in the first round with the winner drawing de Minaur. A Nadal-Tsitsipas match to reach the quarterfinals could be something special.
Nadal is tied for seventh at +1800 in the Madrid outright with Medvedev sixth at +1600. Tsitsipas is the favorite in this portion of the draw with +1000 odds.
Can Americans Fritz or Paul Make a Run?
Since 2010, the only Americans to reach the quarterfinals in Madrid is John Isner in 2015, 2018, and 2021.
Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul would like to change that as two of the seeded players in the quarter of the draw headlined by No. 4 Alexander Zverev and No. 8 Hubert Hurkacz.
Fritz moved up two spots to No. 13 in the ATP rankings after reaching the final at Munich. Paul is ranked 16th heading into the tournament. Fritz (+4000) has the best odds among the American players at Madrid.
Paul has had some success at the ATP 250 events but hasn’t fared as well in the larger events.
Paul is 2-0 against Zverev while Fritz has won two of the last three meetings with Zverev. Paul has split his two matches with Hurkacz with the American winning in Indian Wells in 2023 in the most recent meeting.
Hurkacz won in a third-set tiebreaker in the 2023 Shanghai Masters final the last time he faced Rublev.
A Look At the Schedule
With no seeded players in action until the second round, the focus turns to the first round.
Obviously, the Nadal-Blach match will be one those placing tennis bets will be keeping tabs on.
The Pedro Cachin-Sebastian Ofner, Alex Michelsen-Joao Fonseca, and Yoshihito Nishioka-Felix Auger-Aliassime matches are worth watching as well.
If all the top seeds advance, it would be recently crowned Barcelona champion Ruud meeting up with top-seeded
Sinner, Alcaraz-Rublev, Medvedev-Tsitsipas, and Zverev-Hurkacz in the quarterfinals.
Sinner and Medvedev could meet in one semifinal with Alcaraz and Zverev a possible matchup in the other semifinal.
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