Manolo Santana Tennis Court

Manolo Santana has no shadow issues, but on Arantxa Sánchez Stadium, you can barely see the ball.

Zizou Bergs is the newest convert to the nose strips.

If I'm correct (I never am), one of the SFs will be Fran Cerúndolo X Zverev, unless Ruud or Aliassime play really well and surprise everybody. Zverev may have Cobolli in QFs.

The other is Sinner X Shelton, Fils (they meet in QFs) or Musetti. Sinner in QFs may have Fonseca, de Miñaur or Rublev.

So, my new fav, #69 Alexander Blockx, will play #52 Botic van de Zandschulp in the first round. The winner takes [28] Brandon Nakashima.

A lot of history these two.

Mérida defeat was brutal, the poor guy.

This quarter (2):

[20] Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
Carreño Busta X Fucsovics

Munar X Shevchenko
[12] Casper Ruud

This quarter:

[27] João Fonseca
Bergs X Cilic

Jódar X de Jong
[5] Álex de Miñaur

#102 Daniel Mérida beat #77 Marco Trungelliti in the final round of qualifying.

But Trungelliti still made the main draw as a luck loser, replacing #71 Raphaël Collignon, who withdrew with a left-wrist injury.

The result: Mérida and Trungelliti will play each other AGAIN.

[33] Sakkari became seed replacing #14 Alexandrova, while [34] Frech will take #6 Anisimova's spot.

As #11 Muchova, #27 Raducanu, #28 Navarro, #29 Joint and #35 Bejlek won't play, #32 Baptiste, #33 Cristian, #34 Li, #36 Qinwen Zheng and #40 Ostapenko will take their places.

With #6 Anisimova withdrawing today, that makes 14 Top‑100 players who won’t play the WTA 1000 in Madrid.

That’s becoming the new normal for the most important tournaments on the calendar.

Really sad to check the scores these days.

Lost in Madrid today: Garín, Harris, Haddad Maia, Badosa, Montgomery.

They're all trying to come back from injury, but they just can't get through the field they’re up against.

Even [4] Bianca Andreescu is out in the first round of WTA 125 Oeiras.

Just saw that Jasmine Paolini cried on court during the match point of her loss in Stuttgart.

Awww Carla Suarez Navarro coaching Badosa in the sit down 🤗🤗🧱💃🎾 #MMopen

Lorenzo Musetti

Lorenzo Musetti at Laureus prize. #elegance

Well, not my specialty, but since the NDP collapsed, it’s normal that the Conservatives gained.

I don’t doubt that young men are more conservative today, but I don’t think that’s because of Poilievre.

Not in Madrid draw:

#11 Muchova
#14 Alexandrova
#27 Raducanu
#30 Navarro
#32 Joint
#34 Bejlek
#54 Kartal
#66 Kudermetova

#51 Krejčíková is injured as usual, and #42 Vondroušová, after having problems with the doping people, took and a break from the tour for mental‑health reasons.

#66 Donna Vekic eliminated in the first round of Madrid quali by #126 Leolia Jeanjean.

#396 Stephens, a former Roland Garros finalist, beat #95 Parry.
+42 —> #354 with the win.

Stephens needs final points (600) to get back to the Top 100. A long journey.

Without the points of his 2025 Madrid title, Casper Ruud would be #26 (-11), but he plays well on European clay.

Jack Draper was the runner-up last year and will be #46 (-18) provisory, as he withdrew from the tournament (and Rome).

Out in 1st round of quali in Madrid: Gaston, Vukic, MacDonald, Halys, Martínez, Kovacevic, Hijikata, O'Connell and Kouame.

Also out [14] Matteo Arnaldi, who defended QFs. His ranking will go down to #146 (-43).

Tennis court with shadows at Madrid Open

This is Madrid.

Yes, that bad.

Defending in Madrid:

Title
Ruud

Runner-up
Draper

SFs
Musetti, Cerúndolo

QFs
Mensik, Medvedev, Arnaldi (!), Diallo

R4
Zverev, Bublik, Fritz, Nakashima, Paul, Tiafoe, de Miñaur, Dimitrov

Fritz won't play this year. Arnaldi will try to qualify. The 2025 edition was full of surprises.

Defending in Madrid:

Title
Sabalenka

Runner-up
Gauff

SFs
Svitolina, Swiatek

QFs
Kostyuk, Uchijima (!), Andreeva and Keys

R4
Stearns, Potapova, Alexandrova, Sakkari, Starodubtseva, Bencic, Vekic and Shnaider

Potapova and Vekic are in the quali...

Madrid 1st round:

Townsend X Boulter
Putintseva X Valentova
Tjen X Sakkari
Stearns X Boisson

Cristina Bucsa is the seed [27] and Ann Li, the [31].

Possible R3 Sabalenka X Osaka.

This quarter:

[30] Baptiste
[WC] Quevedo X [WC] V. Williams

Siegemund X Begu
[8] Paolini

Madrid's quali 1st round:

Vekic X Jeanjean
Tomova X Pavlyuchenkova
Parry X Stephens
Parks X Avanesyan

Harris X McDonald
Prizmic X O'Connell

These folks need to improve their rankings as soon as possible. They are being trounced in the first round of quali.

Falta de suerte

Garín X Jarry in the first round of Madrid's quali.

Let’s say Cobolli’s shot selection is being unfortunate, to put it mildly.

Cobolli is so lost out there that Shelton suddenly looks like a clay specialist on the opposite side.

Perhaps felling the weight of the moment, Flavio Cobolli showed up clean‑shaved for the ATP 500 Munich final against defending champion Ben Shelton.

Shelton is already up 4-0, a double break.

#12 Rublev 2,630 pts, Barcelona Final
#13 Cobolli 2,600 pts, Munich Final

Both are ATP 500 tournaments.