Scouting Report: Stars Align In Madrid

Clay-Court Circuit Moves To Madrid: The fourth ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event of the year is in Madrid, where 19 of the Top 20 players in the Emirates ATP Rankings will descend on the Spanish capital. The Mutua Madrid Open has been staged on clay since 2009 and is held at the Caja Magica, with Spaniards winning the title five times since the inaugural edition 15 years ago. Four-time champion Rafael Nadal leads the home charge and is joined by fellow former winners Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray. Murray is the top seed, with Djokovic seeded second, Stan Wawrinka third and Nadal fourth.

10 THINGS TO KNOW IN MADRID
1) Big 4 Domination: Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer have won 59 of the last 64 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments, dating back to Nadal’s triumph at Monte-Carlo in 2010. The foursome has also accounted for nine straight titles at the Mutua Madrid Open since David Nalbandian defeated Federer in the 2007 final. Djokovic leads all players with 30 Masters 1000 titles, followed by Nadal (29), Federer (26), Andre Agassi (17) and Murray (14).

2) Andy Top Seed: Murray is the top seed in Madrid for the first time and comes in with a 15-5 record in 2017 (3-2 on clay). Last year, he was 13-4 with no titles entering Madrid. He went on to reach the Madrid final and end the season on a 65-5 run with an ATP World Tour-best nine titles.

3) Novak Reigning Champion: Djokovic, the defending champion, is looking to jump start his 2017 campaign. He enters with a 14-4 record and one title (Doha). One year ago, he came into Madrid with a 28-2 record and four titles. Djokovic lost before the final at the Australian Open, Acapulco, Indian Wells and Monte-Carlo, his longest drought without a final since 2010 (10 tournaments).

4) Nadal on a Roll: Nadal leads the ATP World Tour with 29 victories this season. He enters on a 10-match winning streak after capturing his 10th career title at ATP Masters 1000 events in Monte-Carlo and Barcelona. Nadal trails the Emirates ATP Race to London leader Federer by 310 points (4,045-3,735). If he reaches the semi-finals, the Spaniard will pass Federer for the most points in 2017.

5) Kyrgios Comes to Clay: Nick Kyrgios is 16-4 this season, but has yet to play on clay. The Aussie is 5-2 in Madrid and has posted Top 4 wins in each of his first two appearances, beating No. 4 Wawrinka en route to the 2016 quarter-finals and No. 2 Federer to reach the 2015 third round.

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6) Hometown Boys: Madrid natives Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco are playing at their hometown tournament for the 16th and 15th consecutive year, respectively. Six other players are appearing in Madrid for the 10th-or-more straight season: Nadal (15), David Ferrer (15), Wawrinka (11), Nicolas Almagro (11), Marcel Granollers (10) and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (10).

7) #NextGenATP Stars: There are five #NextGenATP stars making the trip to Madrid: Karen Khachanov, Alexander Zverev, qualifier Ernesto Escobedo and Lucky Losers Borna Coric and Jared Donaldson.

8) Milestone Watch: Three players are closing in on milestone wins: Ferrer (698), Tomas Berdych (596) and Gael Monfils (399). Marin Cilic reached 400 wins this past week in Istanbul.

9) Wild Cards: The Madrid wild cards are 2010 semi-finalist Almagro, 2004 quarter-finalist Tommy Robredo, Spanish veteran Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Romanian Marius Copil.

10) Doubles Field: No. 2 seeds and 5-time champions Bob and Mike Bryan are without a title going into May for the first time in their careers. The defending champions are Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau. Overall, eight of the Top 10 in the Emirates ATP Doubles Team Rankings are in the draw.