APRIL 24 - MAY 7, 2023

Upsets and close calls open Wednesday’s play

Wednesday’s play is underway with plenty of surprise results and tight clashes in a Caja Mágica bathed in the Madrid sun.

The day started with a Spanish duel in the Manolo Santana Stadium between Feliciano López and Roberto Bautista Agut, which the latter won 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 in a match that lasted 2 hours and 27 minutes. With the possibility of a clash with Djokovic in his next match, Bautista said that “both he, Nadal, Federer and Murray are players who have very few bad days and tend to reach the final rounds every week, so it will be a difficult game if Djokovic beats Coric today”.

At the same time, the Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario Stadium witnessed the end of Petra Kvitova’s tournament as she lost 6-3, 6-4 to the Australian Daria Gavrilova. This result, together with Simona Halep’s 6-3, 6-4 victory over Timea Bacsinszky, means that only one seed has so far made it to the quarters,  Carla Suarez will be bidding for her place there this afternoon.

In the men’s draw, Tomas Berdych eased past Denis Istomin 6-3, 6-3 in the first match of the day on Court 3 at the Caja Mágica. The following match on the same arena threw up the big surprise of the day when Nick Kyrgios saw off fourth seed Stan Wawrinka in a tight match, the Australian coming out on top 7-6, 7-6.

Sixth seed Kei Nishikori was also made to sweat on another balmy afternoon in Madrid. The Japanese 2014 finalist battled through against Fabio Fognini to book his place in round three with a 6-2 3-6 7-5 victory in a match lasting two hours and 21 minutes.

Rafael Nadal’s next opponent was decided in the match between Sam Querrey and Lucas Pouille, the American world number 37 emerging victorious in three sets to book a Thursday meeting with the four-times Madrid Open champion.