The Mutua Madrid Open, ATP Masters 1000 tournament began Sunday in Madrid, Spain, as all of the top players, except the notably absent Novak Djokovic, will vie for supremacy in the second clay court masters tournament of 2015. In preparation, here is a look at some of the top players who are in-form going into the tournament. Part 2 of my coverage will look at names who are struggling.
ATP Form Tracker: Madrid Masters 2015 Players on The Rise
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5: Nick Kyrgios
The young Aussie comes off a tremendous run to the final in Estoril, and though clay is clearly his weakest surface, he’s proven he can win matches on the surface, and his tenacity, and passion translates no matter what surface he’s playing on. The big test for Kyrgios should come in round 2, presuming he beats in-form qualifier Daniel Gimeno-Traver, as the top seed Roger Federer is in his section. Kyrgios beat clay courters Pablo Carreno Busta, Robin Haase, and Albert Ramos in Estoril, but Federer, who won the Istanbul title is a step up. That said, Fed was shaky at times in Istanbul, dropping sets to lower ranked players, and may well be ripe for an upset. Kyrgios has already beaten Nadal (at Wimbledon last year), and now he’ll get his first crack at Federer.
I don’t think he’s quite ready yet to pull off that feat, given he hasn’t mastered sliding on clay yet, but the skillset and mental fortitude is there, and we’ll see which Federer shows up. Should he win that match, a run to the quarterfinals is possible.
4: Jack Sock
Sock won his first ATP title on Har-Tru clay in Houston, and this is his first tournament since that triumph, along with it being his first in Europe this season. Given he’s a young American with a power oriented hard court game, built around his elite forehand, not much should be expected of him on the red dirt. With that in mind though, he has a great chance to exceed low expectations as Barcelona finalist Pablo Andujar, who retired in his last match in Munich, is his first opponent. Winning that match would be an accomplishment in and of itself, given Andujar’s experience on clay and his recent good form, but Sock would ratchet expectations up a notch and draw attention to himself if he can upset either Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or Lukas Rosol and reach the third round.
Both players, though more experienced, and accomplished on clay, appear to be in beatable form right now, and Sock has been on fire since returning from surgery as he has just two losses and wins over Roberto Bautista Agut, and Santiago Giraldo on clay, along with a win over Fabio Fognini on hard. It’s likely the case that Sock is the best American clay court player on tour right now, and the young gun can prove that in Madrid.
3: Tomas Berdych
I don’t focus heavily on top 10 players in these articles normally, but Berdych deserves notice for what he’s been doing this season in under the radar fashion, given his status as a top 10 player, and a veteran. The Czech #1 is 27-7 this season and he has yet to lose to a non-top 10 player. He reached the final in Monte Carlo, has two other ATP finals (Doha and Rotterdam), and also reached the semis in Miami, as he’s primarily played top tier events this season. Berdych appears to be focusing on performing at his best, against the best, and he’s risen to the occasion and done so with a new coaching team, mostly drawn from the Andy Murray camp, aiding his growth. The only issue has been his struggles against the games elite, as he can’t seem to get over the hump to beat top 10 players.
He’ll likely get another crack at that in Madrid though, as Roger Federer is his likely quarterfinal opponent, presuming he deals with Richard Gasquet (Estoril Finalist), Tsonga/Sock or any other player who comes up before that. Berdych lost to Federer in Madrid in 2012, the year the tournament was played on “smurf dirt”, and with Federer showing signs of struggle, Berdych could finally get his revenge no matter the poor head-to-head record.
2: Guillermo Garcia-Lopez
The 31 year old Garcia-Lopez, a versatile all-court Spaniard with primarily a baseline shotmaking game, is on track to have the best season of his career, as he has 19 wins on tour already, and is just 1 win away from equaling his 2011, 2012 and 2013 ATP wins total (he won 25 matches in 2014 and should also surpass that later on this season). GGL and his one-handed backhand have already won two ATP titles this year, including on clay in Bucharest (beat Gael Monfils and Jiri Vesely), and he comes off the semis in Estoril, where he put up a fight against Richard Gasquet, and beat both Borna Coric and Kevin Anderson.
Fatigue could be a factor in how he performs in Madrid, but presuming he can refresh himself, he should be able to win a challenging round 1 encounter against the struggling fellow Spaniard, Fernando Verdasco. That would set him up with a chance to either beat Vesely again, or upset Marin Cilic, who has been so-so in his comeback from injury. Should GGL perform up to his abilities, he is likely to reach the third round, where David Ferrer will pose a challenge. That said, Ferrer is far from unbeatable, so the sky is the limit for the Spanish veteran.
1: Martin Klizan
It may seem hard to believe, but the unseeded Klizan has a chance to reach his first Masters level semifinal based on how the draw was constructed. The big hitting Slovak is 8-3 on clay this season, and his high risk/high reward game tends to result in him either outperforming expectations (notable wins over Nishikori, Fognini, Tsonga, and Nadal in the past) or crashing out and struggling.
Right now we are seeing some of the best tennis Klizan can dish out as he won the title in Casablanca and reached the semis in Barcelona, where he scored notable wins over Juan Monaco and Tommy Robredo, both accomplished dirtballers. He’ll have a somewhat challenging start against Marcel Granollers, then Gael Monfils. Presuming he pulls off that double though, and even if Monfils is healthy and playing well, I still give him a punchers chance. He could upset Andy Murray as well in the third round. Murray is likely to be fatigued from Munich, and he’s never been at his best on clay. Should that occur, Klizan becomes the favorite to reach the semis from the bottom half section. Should he do so, you can say you read it here first.
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