All Hands On Deck as Murray, Djokovic Headline ATP Madrid; Preview

MUTUA MADRID OPEN
Madrid, Spain; surface: clay
ADHEREL
Seeds: Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka, Rafael Nadal, Milos Raonic, Kei Nishikori, Marin Cilic, Dominic Thiem, David Goffin, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Tomas Berdych, Grigor Dimitrov, Lucas Pouille, Jack Sock, Gael Monfils, Nick Kyrgios

1ST QUARTER
Floaters: Richard Gasquet, Philipp Kohlschreiber, “Dr.” Ivo Karlovic, Roberto Bautista Agut

Breakdown: Murray and Thiem head this tough section with quality floaters…Seeds Pouille and Dimitrov also in the mix…(12) Dimitrov will start against the veteran Kohlschreiber, then face the Bautista Agut-Dr. Ivo winner…Murray will start against a wildcard, either Guillermo Garcia-Lopez or Marius Copil.

2ND QUARTER
Floaters: Benoit Paire, Pablo Carreno Busta, Nicolas Mahut, Alexander Zverev, Fernando “Hot Sauce” Verdasco

Breakdown: Wawrinka hasn’t gotten past the round of 16 in his last two events, including Monte Carlo, and heads this quarter with Cilic…Sock and Berdych are the other two seeds…Tough starts for (3) Wawrinka vs. the Paire-Carreno Busta winner, (14) Sock vs. Mahut, and (7) Cilic vs. the A.Zverev-Hot Sauce winner.

3RD QUARTER
Floaters: Tommy Haas, Gilles Muller, Fabio Fognini

Breakdown: Nadal and Raonic head the section with some land mines for the top players…(5) Raonic starts against the Haas-Muller winner, and (4) Nadal will meet the winner of his nemesis Fognini and Joao Sousa…Goffin and Kyrgios are the other seeds in the section…(16) Kyrgios starts against Marcos Baghdatis, then meets the winner of Ryan Harrison and Bernard Tomic, then would face Nadal.

4TH QUARTER
Floaters: David Ferrer, Gilles Simon, Feliciano Lopez

Breakdown: Interesting quarter for Djokovic, who just fired his whole coaching staff, and  Nishikori, to tame as the top seeds…Tsonga and Monfils the other seeds…(15) Monfils starts against Simon in what will undoubtedly be an entertaining all-French affair, the winner to likely meet Lopez…(2) Djokovic starts against an elderly Spanish wildcard entry, either Tommy Robredo or Nicolas Almagro.

Wildcards were awarded to Spaniards Almagro, Garcia Lopez, Robredo, and the Romanian Copil…Pulling from the tournament were Juan Martin del Potro, Roger Federer, John Isner, Steve Johnson, Paolo Lorenzi, Sam Querrey, and Viktor Troicki…Djokovic beat Murray in last year’s three-set final.

Former champs in the field are Djokovic (2016,’11), Murray (2015,’08), and Nadal (2014-13,’10,’05).