The Mutua Madrid Open draw ceremony was held on Monday afternoon, when a loaded top half resulted from the shuffle of names.
Jannik Sinner is the No. 1 seed with Novak Djokovic having withdrawn, but the draw did Sinner no favors because his side of the bracket is stacked. It also features Daniil Medvedev, Casper Ruud, Stefanos Tsitsipas, and Grigor Dimitrov. Ruud and Tsitsipas just faced each other in back-to-back clay-court finals in Monte-Carlo and Barcelona, with Ruud triumphing at the latter on Sunday after Tsitsipas lifted the trophy at the former.
Sinner could face either Ruud or Dimitrov in the last eight. Medvedev and Tsitsipas are on a quarterfinal collision course, but Medvedev will likely run into Sebastian Korda in the third round and the American has given him all kinds of problems in the past. Tsitsipas can expect to see Dusan Lajovic on the other side of the net in his first match; that would be a rematch of the Barcelona semifinals.
At the bottom of the draw, Alcaraz returns from a right-arm injury after skipping both Monte-Carlo and Barcelona. The third-ranked Spaniard is the two-time defending champion in Madrid, but he obviously isn’t the favorite this time around given his health issues coinciding with Sinner’s rise. Alcaraz beat surprising finalist Jan-Lennard Struff for the 2023 title and the 20-year-old could meet the recent Munich champion in the fourth round of this tournament.
Alexander Zverev, Hubert Hurkacz, Holger Rune, and a struggling Andrey Rublev also find themselves in the bottom half of the bracket.
Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal’s comeback continues in the form of a first-round matchup with 16-year-old American Darwin Blanch. Nadal began his clay-court swing last week in Barcelona, where he defeated Flavio Cobolli 6-2, 6-3 before losing to Alex de Minaur 7-5, 6-1. If the 37-year-old Spaniard beats Blanch, he will once again go up against De Minaur.
