As part of the preparations for Roland Garros, the Grand Slam that seals the clay tennis season, this week the Madrid tournament of the Masters round takes place. Today (Thursday) was supposed to open with the first meeting between Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray since 2017, but the Briton was forced to retire from the match and the Serb qualified directly for the quarter-finals. In a match held later in the evening, a big surprise was recorded when world number 4 Rafael Nadal, who returned from injury ahead of participating in his favorite Grand Slam, barely defeated David Gofen (60) and advanced to the quarterfinals as well.
The Spaniard started rather well and won the first set 3: 6, but the Belgian – who defeated Nadal when they met at the Australian Open about a year and a half ago – raised the bar and won the second set 5: 7 while stubbornly maintaining his submissions, and the frustration of the world number 4 only man. At the end of a tense tie-breaker in the third set, Nadal finally managed to defeat his opponent, who faced a three-time victory, but failed to create the surprise he had hoped for.
Andy Murray has withdrawn from this morning’s match against Novak Djokovic at the Madrid Open due to illnesshttps://t.co/0pK3z9w0GJ
– MailOnline Sport (MailSport) May 5, 2022
As for Andy Murray – ranked 78th in the world, who received an automatic ticket to the competition, made a magical way in the Spanish capital when he defeated Dominic Tim (who dropped this year to 91st place in the world) and Dennis Shapovalov (16th in the world). As mentioned, the Briton was supposed to play against Djokovic one of his most important games since he started dealing with injuries and deteriorating in the world rankings, but illness prevented him from doing so. Djokovic, who leads the top of the world rankings, will face the winner in the quarterfinals between Hubert Horkach (14) and Dusan Lajovic (77).