[Yomi]

The Park Manzanares clay awaits the finest that the tennis world has to offer for the next two weeks, as ATP Tour players vie for glory in this year’s edition of the Madrid Open.

The event marks the fourth Masters tournament of the year for male players, who have already clashed in Monte Carlo, Miami and Indian Wells at 1000 level – Stefanos Tsitsipas was crowned the champion of the former earlier this month.

However, with Novak Djokovic opting not to compete in the Spanish capital this time around, defending champion Carlos Alcaraz is the man to beat, while Jannik Sinner enters as the top seed.

The draw for the men’s singles event was held on Monday, and here, Sports Mole takes a look at some of the key points and headlines which could potentially be written.

There will be no prizes for guessing who the loudest cheers will go to this week, as clay aficionado Rafael Nadal – a five-time winner of the Madrid Open – makes his long-awaited return to Masters territory for the first time in over a year.

The 22-time major winner has not competed at an ATP 1000 event since the 2022 Paris Masters, but after pulling out of Monte Carlo, Nadal was given the green light to play at the Barcelona Open, just his second top-level tournament of the year.

The 37-year-old’s comeback match saw him ease past Flavio Cobolli in round one before falling to defeat against Alex de Minaur in round two, and he will have a shot at revenge against the Australian 10th seed should he avoid a shock loss in his opening tie.

Indeed, Nadal has been drawn to face American 16-year-old wildcard Darwin Blanch, who reached the semi-finals of the French Open and Wimbledon junior tournaments last year and only made his ATP Tour debut at the Miami Open this year, losing to Tomas Machac in straight sets.

Blanch warmed up for his Madrid debut by reaching the semi-finals of an ITF tournament in Spain over the weekend, but little can prepare him for a showdown with Nadal, who had already won three French Open titles by the time the teenager was born.

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