Santiago Aparicio
Madrid, May 1 (EFE) .- The dominance established in recent times by the Spanish Rafael Nadal and the Serbian Novak Djokovic and the Swiss Roger Federer, absent from the Caja Mágica in this edition, meets at Mutua Madrid with the emergence of the new generation of circuit players who have begun to impose their law in most of the recent tournaments.
The ‘Big Three’, a name that encompasses the Swiss, the Balkan and the Balearic, has already marked an era in the history of tennis. It still implants its strength despite the ever-increasing incursion of talented aspiring tennis players to invade the endless sporting tyranny of these classics.
The past still present against the threatening future. In the last five years, of the twenty-one Grand Slam played, including the Australian Open in 2021, only three were not won by Djokovic, Nadal or Federer. Andy Murray won the 2016 Wimbledon, Stanilas Wawrinka the 2016 US Open and Dominic Thiem the 2020 US Open.
The Austrian is one of the players who heads the ‘Next Gen’ and one of the great claims, along with Nadal, of the Caja Mágica tournament that has been able to reopen its doors after a blank year due to the pandemic.
The nineteenth edition of the event, the twelfth on clay, will be different. It will have an audience, but without covering even half the capacity of the tracks and subject to rigorous sanitary measures. In any case it will start walking.
Tennis returns to Madrid with Nadal as the main incentive in the men’s team. Nobody has won more times than the Spanish, champion five times, the last one in 2017, and another three more finalist. Three triumphs, including the most recent, that of 2019, adorn the record of Djokovic who dropped out at the last minute after his elimination in the Belgrade tournament.
Nadal arrives at the Caja Mágica after achieving his first title of the year in the Conde de Godó tournament, his best result of the course and the quarterfinals of the Monte Carlo Masters 1000, surpassed by Russian Andrey Rublev. The Spanish resumed the season on the clay of the Principality, which he played two months after his start in 2021 at the Australian Open, where he also reached the quarterfinals, eliminated by Stefanos Tsitsipas and which forced him to a competitive break due to an ailment in the back.
The Balearic tennis player, second in the ATP ranking, has accumulated 35 wins in the Masters 1000, one less than the world number one who will resume his march for the season in Rome. The Balkan played the ATP Cup, won the Australian Open, lost in the third round in Monte Carlo against Britain’s Daniel Evans and lost in the semi-finals in Belgrade.
In front of Nadal, who will debut against his compatriot Carlos Alcaraz or the Frenchman Adrian Mannarino, the members of the ‘Next Gen’ appear, more active on the circuit and who have caressed success in the last editions of the Madrid competition. Among some of them they have monopolized the triumph in the last three Masters 1000 disputed. Daniil Medvedev won in Paris 2020 and the Polish Hubert Hurkacz triumphed in Miami and Tsitsipas in Monte Carlo this year.
Thiem is more than an alternative. With a Grand Slam already behind him (2020 United States Open), he was one step away from triumph in the Caja Mágica in 2017, surpassed by Nadal in the final, and also in 2018, beaten by the German Alexander Zverev, another of those who are waiting.
Number four in the world, the Austrian, finalist at the Australian Open in 2020 and twice at Roland Garros (2018 and 2019). He has already accumulated seventeen titles.
Medvedev always has things to say. The number three on the circuit, only surpassed by Nadal after his triumph in Barcelona and Djokovic, already boasts triumphs in three Masters 1000s (Paris 2020, Shanghai 2019 and Cincinnati 2019).
Winner in Marseille this year, the finalist of the Australian Open 2021 and the United States Open 2019, he is one of the aspirants to strengthen his perspective from the Magic Box.
Tsitsipas is another player to watch out for. Fifth in the world, this season boasts the triumph in the Monte Carlo Masters 1000, once fertile ground for Nadal and Djokovic. He was a finalist in the last edition of Madrid, where you already know what Alexander Zverev is to win.
The German emerged triumphant from the Caja Mágica in 2018, one of the three Masters 1000 that contains a history of fourteen successes. It boasts the one obtained in Canada and Rome in 2017 and four other non-prize finals in events of this level.
The Madrid Masters 1000 is a challenge for Andrey Rublev, seventh in the ATP rankings, who has not finished closing a great victory that reaffirms his progression. The Russian, winner this year in Rotterdam, already has eight titles but none of this category. He stayed out of doors in Monte Carlo where he was beaten by Tsitsipas. EFE
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