Five-time former Mutua Madrid Open champion Rafael Nadal will face a strong challenge in his opening match at La Caja Magica this year.
The 80-time tour-level titlist, aiming for his 50th tournament victory in the Spanish capital (49-11), will meet the winner of the all-Canadian #NextGenATP first-round clash between Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime. Nadal will be bidding to reach his ninth championship match in Madrid this year (5-3), but will be well aware of the immediate threat that both potential second-round oppponents pose.
Shapovalov has enjoyed success in Madrid already, having defeated Milos Raonic and Kyle Edmund en route to the semi-finals last year. The 20-year-old Canadian also has experience of beating the Spaniard at Masters 1000 level, following his final-set tie-break win over Nadal at the 2017 Rogers Cup.
Fellow Canadian Auger-Aliassime is currently playing the best tennis of his career. The World No. 30, who has risen 78 positions in the ATP Rankings this year, reached his first ATP Tour final at the Rio Open presented by Claro (l. to Djere) in February and advanced to his maiden Masters 1000 semi-final at the Miami Open presented by Itau (l. to Isner) earlier this year.
Nadal shares his quarter of the draw with 2014 final opponent Kei Nishikori, former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka and Daniil Medvedev, who reached the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters semi-finals last month (l. to Lajovic). Medvedev will meet in-form Guido Pella in one of the picks of the first-round matches. Pella has already reached two tour-level finals on clay this year, which includes his run to the Brasil Open crown in March (d. Garin).
Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer were both drawn into the top half of the draw. Following a first-round bye, World No. 1 Djokovic will meet Grigor Dimitrov or a qualifier for a spot in the third round. At that stage, the 2011 and 2016 champion could face Marco Cecchinato of Italy in a repeat of their epic quarter-final at Roland Garros last year. Djokovic also shares the top quarter of the draw with US Open runner-up Juan Martin del Potro and ninth seed Marin Cilic.
Three-time former Madrid titlist Federer's highly anticipated return to clay will see the Swiss open his campaign against Richard Gasquet or Millennium Estoril Open semi-finalist Alejandro Davidovich-Fokina. Competing on the red dirt for the first time since the 2016 Internazionali BNL d'Italia, Federer will be eager to improve on his 35-8 record in the Spanish capital.
Federer has had an impressive start to the 2019 season, with title runs at the Dubai Duty Free Championships (d. Tsitsipas) and the Miami Open presented by Itau (d. Isner). The 37-year-old is one of only two players, alongside Dominic Thiem, to have lifted multiple ATP Tour trophies in 2019. Federer could meet Thiem at the quarter-final stage, with Monte-Carlo champion Fabio Fognini also featuring in a packed section of the draw.
Defending champion Alexander Zverev headlines the third quarter of the draw. The German did not drop his serve en route to the title last year, defeating John Isner, Shapovalov and Thiem in consecutive matches to lift the trophy and improve his tournament record to 8-1.
Zverev will meet Roberto Bautista Agut or David Ferrer in the second round. The Masters 1000 event will be the final tournament of Ferrer's career, which has seen the Spaniard lift 27 ATP Tour titles and reach a career-high No. 3 in the ATP Rankings. Zverev shares the third quarter of the draw with fellow seeds Stefanos Tsitsipas, Karen Khachanov and Borna Coric.
Read Ferrer: "In The End, All You Have Left Is The Person"
from Tennis - ATP World Tour http://bit.ly/2DKS9B6
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