ATP Masters in Madrid, 2nd Round, Tuesday, 03.05.2022
There are admittedly many favourites, this year’s Masters in Madrid. Besides the current top stars, there is also a champion from 2008, but by now more active in the role of an outsider.
Eleven years will lie between the two players who meet in the 2nd round on Tuesday evening and yet neither the bookmakers nor I expect a one-sided match. Read my Murray Shapovalov tip to see which match outcome seems most realistic to me!
An arduous 6-4, 7-6 loss to Gilles Simon 13 years ago – Andy Murray enters Madrid with fond memories but has a long way to go if he wants to recall his greatest success.
The Scot is now 34 years old, but he is not yet thinking of retiring. Why should he? His performances are good and he has also improved his ranking so much that he has cracked the top 80.
The only drawback is that it is almost never enough against the big names, Murray is often eliminated after a very big fight. He has never been eliminated in the first round in the last few tournaments, and this time, too, he got over this hurdle.
Murray fought his way to a 6-3, 6-4 win over Dominic Thiem. Granted, Thiem is far from his best, but that shouldn’t diminish the performance of the veteran, who didn’t allow a single break.
The opponents who brought him to his knees in recent months were all big names. Daniil Medvedev in Miami, Alexander Bublik in Indian Wells, Jannik Sinner in Dubai or Roberto Bautista Agut in Madrid, they were all a bit too big.
In Sydney, at the beginning of the year, they even reached the final once, so even the absolute top players should not underestimate Andy Murray. Does Denis Shapovalov also belong to this category?
Last year, the two met for the first time at Wimbledon, a match that went straight to the Canadian. The 23-year-old started his tournament in Madrid with a 7-6, 6-3 win over Ugo Humbert.
The world number 16 has both positive and negative memories of his days in Madrid. While he made it to the semi-finals in 2018, where he was defeated by Alexander Zverev, he has only won a single match in his two most recent appearances.
The semi-final in Dubai was his biggest success this year, but the competition here was also quite manageable. Most recently in Miami, Shapovalov lost directly in Round 1 to Lloyd Harris in two sets.
For years he has been regarded as an absolute talent, but somehow the knot does not really want to burst. Results with close scores or tiebreaks are usually the order of the day for him, but Andy Murray also brings fighting qualities to the table.
My Murray Shapovalov Tip
He may no longer be one of the greats, but whenever Andy Murray serves, he is still sure to attract attention. And why shouldn’t he, the Scot is fighting tirelessly and rising again in the world rankings.
However, my analysis has also shown that Murray can no longer compete with the top 20. Since I still expect a rather close affair, I come to the following tip:
Shapovalov wins with over 17.5 games!
