The 8th Masters Series event of the ATP season begins on Monday October 16th - Sports Magician takes a look at questions to be answered in Madrid.
- Roger Federer - Will the world no.1 win his first indoor Masters title?
Having missed last year's event through injury, Federer will look to claim his first title in Madrid. Federer has dominated on hard and grass courts for the past couple of years, and will be hoping to replicate that dominance during the indoor season over the next few weeks. Following Madrid, Federer is scheduled to play his home town event in Basel followed by the last Masters Series event of the season in Paris (Federer has to date not won any of these events). His year will then culminate at the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai where Federer was beaten in last year's final by Argentine David Nalbandian in an epic encounter that was settled by a 5th set tie-break.
- Rafael Nadal - Will the world no.2 and defending champion rediscover some form?
Having surpassed his own expectations at Wimbledon this year by making the final before succumbing to Federer, Nadal has had a few months to forget since. Failing to show any kind of form during the US hardcourt season, Nadal suffered defeats against Ferrero, Berdych and Youzhny. Earlier this week, Nadal lost indoors in Stockholm to Joachim Johansson who is on the way back after a long time out through injury. One thing Nadal is sure to receive this coming week is unconditional support from the Madrid crowd who witnessed his triumph last year beating Ivan Ljubicic in a thrilling final. Nadal must be suffering from a confidence dip at present and playing infront of a partisan crowd may just be the jolt he needs to get back on the winning trail.
- The race for Shanghai - Who will cement their positions for the year end Masters Cup?
We know Federer and Nadal have qualified for Shanghai, they did so long ago. The rest of the the top 10 are still scrapping and fighting to get in. Ivan Ljubicic and James Blake have strengthened their positions this week with strong showings in Vienna and Stockholm respectively. Ljubicic, Roddick and Davydenko will be looking to cement their places in Shanghai. All three of them should make it without having to do anything special over the next 3 weeks.
James Blake has struggled in Masters Series events since making a Final and Quarter Final earlier in the year. He has not gone beyond the 3rd round since then, a good showing in Madrid would almost certainly seal his place in the Masters Cup for the first time in his career.
Tommy Robredo will be hoping to feed off the home support and further his own cause. Robredo won his first Masters title earlier this year on clay in Hamburg and made the Semi Finals in Cincinnati on hard before losing to compatriot Juan Carlos Ferrero.
David Nalbandian has work to do to ensure he will be in Shanghai to defend his title. Since picking up an injury in the French Open Semi Final against Roger Federer earlier this year, Nalbandian's season from an individual aspect has stalled. Having led Argentina to their first Davis Cup Final in over 20 years, he has made it clear that helping Argentina win the Davis Cup for the first time in the nations history is his number one goal for remainder of the season. With a couple of players breathing down his neck to make the Masters Cup, El Rey (The King) will have to produce good performances over the next few weeks.
Marcos Baghdatis and Mario Ancic are currently just on the outside looking in at 9th and 10th in the ATP Champions Race. Baghdatis recently won his first career title beating Ancic in the process. Ancic can consider himself unlucky to not be in a stronger position than he currently is having had to miss Toronto, Cincinnati and the US Open through injury.
Other players like Tommy Haas, David Ferrer, Fernando Gonzalez and Tomas Berdych still have mathematical chances to reach Shanghai but it will take something extraordinary for that to occur and barring injury to others it is unlikely that any of them will make Shanghai.
- The New Generation - Will the young talent of the ATP continue their rise?
The current top 20 of the ATP tour contain a number of outstandingly talented young players looking to make the rise from good to very good. I'm talking aside from Nadal who has already hit great heights, the likes of Marcos Baghdatis, Tomas Berdych, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray. Aswell as Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils who currently sit outside the top 20.
In the past twelve months we have seen various levels of excellence from all of them, possibly with the exception of Monfils. Baghdatis (21) was the story of the Australian Open this year making the final after knocking off Roddick, Ljubicic and Nalbandian. As mentioned earlier he won his first career title only a few weeks ago (Beijing). Berdych (21) won the Paris Masters at the back end of last year, often described as a Safin clone with the weapons to cause any player difficulty but with the mentality to at times self destruct. He has not won a title this year, having to accept the runners-up trophy twice in 2006 (Halle & Mumbai).
Djokovic (19 - the youngest of this crop) has won won two titles this season (Amersfoort & Metz) aswell as reaching another final (Umag). The young Serb consistently exhibits a great deal of maturity in his play for one so young, there is a calmness and assurance within his game that suggests he will be able to handle the challenges still to come. Murray (also 19) also won the first title of his career earlier this year in San Jose where he beat Roddick and Hewitt on back to back nights. Arguably more impressive though was ending Roger Federer's win streak on US hard courts, a feat he achieved in Cincinnati before the US Open. Many cited fatigue for Federer's defeat but Murray himself had been playing for 3 weeks non-stop as he enjoyed a great start to the Summer hard court season. First making the final in Washington before going onto make the Semi-Finals in Toronto and then heading straight to Cincinnati where he achieved his biggest win to date.
Richard Gasquet (20) had a poor start to the year, going into Roland Garros his record was an abysmal 4-9. The season picked up for him before and after Wimbledon, the player known for his sublime backhand defended his grass court title in Nottingham and was unlucky to draw Federer in the first round at Wimbledon. Following his early dismissal, he went to the clay courts in Gstaad and picked up his third career title. And backed up those results further by reaching the final of the Toronto Masters where he again fell victim to Federer. Since recording a stunning victory over Federer in Monte Carlo 2005, Gasquet has been unable to reproduce the result, losing five straight times to the world no1.
Gasquet's compatriot, Gael Monfils (20), has had a strange time of it in the past year. The latter half of 2005 saw his first set of mini-breakthroughs, winning a title in Sopot and making two more finals in Metz & Lyon. He continued the good progress at the start of 2006, making the final in Doha before inevitably losing to Federer. Like Gasquet, Monfils went on a poor run of his own, winning only three of his next eleven matches. He stopped the rot at the Rome Masters, reaching the Semi-Final before being beaten by King of Clay, Rafael Nadal. Monfils went on to reach the fourth round at Roland Garros, beating Murray and Blake in the process before falling to Djokovic. The manner of his victories was the talk of the first week as he had achieved them all in tough five-setters, earning somewhat of a cult following. Since then his season has been disrupted by injury and poor form.
Expect at least one or two of these young talents to be involved in the latter stages this week in Madrid.
Sports Magician will be commenting on the tournament in Madrid as the week progresses. If you enjoy Tennis and would like to speak about it on the web amongst others with a similar passion, try out www.kingsofclay.com
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