Sinner stays in Madrid

Jannik Sinner will play the Madrid Open after considering a skip, with his team choosing match play over rest before Rome and Roland Garros. (tennis365.com) Coach Simone Vagnozzi said Sinner’s camp weighed missing Madrid after Monte Carlo, then decided the event would help the world No. 1 build toward the Italian Open in Rome and the French Open in Paris. (tennis365.com) Sinner is scheduled to open on Friday, April 24, against French qualifier Benjamin Bonzi on Manolo Santana Stadium, not before 4 p.m. local time, according to the ATP Tour order of play. (atptour.com) Madrid is the only ATP Masters 1000 stop where Sinner has not gone beyond the quarter-finals. His best run there came in 2024, and the ATP lists his tournament record at 6-2 entering this week. (atptour.com) That makes the decision less routine than it looks. Sinner arrives on a 17-match winning streak and is chasing a fifth straight Masters 1000 title, but Madrid’s altitude and quicker clay have not rewarded him the way other big events have. (atptour.com, atptour.com) The field around him also changed before he hit a ball. Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic both withdrew from Madrid with injuries, leaving Sinner as the top seed and the central favorite in the men’s draw. (espn.com, tennis.com) Bonzi is ranked outside the top 100 and came through qualifying to reach Sinner. UbiTennis noted Sinner was 3-0 against the Frenchman before Friday’s meeting, though their last two matches both went three sets. (usatoday.com, ubitennis.net) Sinner’s schedule matters beyond one round in Spain because Rome starts in early May and Roland Garros later that month. His team chose to treat Madrid as part of that clay buildup rather than protect his body with another week off. (tennis365.com, atptour.com) So the immediate test is simple: whether the player who has dominated the Masters circuit can solve the one major clay stop that still resists him. Friday’s opener against Bonzi is the first answer. (atptour.com, atptour.com)