Madrid opens to Sinner
- With Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic absent, Jannik Sinner is being treated as the tournament favorite in Madrid. (tennis.com) - Sinner landed in the same quadrant as Fonseca and Jódar on the draw, giving him a clearer path on paper. (puntodebreak.com) - Paula Badosa was scheduled to debut on Manolo Santana court on April 21 amid several last‑minute withdrawals. (puntodebreak.com)
Madrid’s men’s draw opened up on April 20 when Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic were both out, leaving Jannik Sinner as the clear top seed and the player to beat. (atptour.com; tennis.com) The ATP Tour said Sinner will start against a qualifier and could face Gabriel Diallo in the third round, Tommy Paul in the fourth, and Alex de Minaur in the quarterfinals. The event runs from April 22 to May 3 at Caja Mágica, with the men’s top 32 seeds receiving first-round byes. (atptour.com; olympics.com) Joao Fonseca and Rafael Jódar landed in De Minaur’s section rather than directly in Sinner’s immediate path, which makes Sinner’s quarter look cleaner on paper. ATP Tour noted that Jódar, 19, arrived after winning Marrakech and reaching the Barcelona semifinals. (atptour.com) Sinner also arrived chasing a fifth straight ATP Masters 1000 title after wins in Paris, Indian Wells, Miami and Monte Carlo. ATP Tour said he dropped one set across those four events, against Tomas Machac in Monte Carlo. (atptour.com) Madrid has not been his easiest Masters stop. ATP Tour said Sinner has never gone beyond the quarterfinals there, even with the altitude in Madrid making clay play faster than at Rome or Roland Garros. (atptour.com; olympics.com) The field changed because Alcaraz withdrew on April 17 after a right wrist injury that had already forced him out of Barcelona, and Djokovic withdrew the same day citing a right shoulder injury. Tennis.com said Alcaraz is missing his home Masters event for the second straight year, while Djokovic has now missed Madrid three times in four years. (tennis.com) That reshuffle also changed the feel of the first days in Madrid, where the women’s main draw began on April 21 before the men’s main draw starts April 22. Olympics.com listed 96-player singles draws for both tours, with the top 32 seeds in each bracket getting byes into round two. (olympics.com) Paula Badosa was scheduled to make her debut on Manolo Santana Stadium on Tuesday, April 21, against Julia Grabher in the third match of the day. The official order of play also put Kaitlin Quevedo against Venus Williams on that court, not before 16:00 local time. (mutuamadridopen.com) So the tournament opened with Spain’s biggest men’s name absent, Spain’s top women’s attraction on center court, and the world No. 1 sitting on the top line of a draw that now runs through him. (tennis.com; mutuamadridopen.com; atptour.com)
