{"id":75816,"date":"2022-04-28T19:36:35","date_gmt":"2022-04-28T18:36:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/desarrollo.mutuamadridopen.com\/?p=67570"},"modified":"2022-04-28T19:36:35","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T18:36:35","slug":"nadal-takes-to-the-clay-of-madrid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/desarrollo.mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/nadal-takes-to-the-clay-of-madrid\/","title":{"rendered":"Nadal takes to the clay of Madrid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Having cleared up the debate over whether he would participate at the Mutua Madrid Open, Rafael Nadal<\/strong> made an appearance in the Caja M\u00e1gica on Thursday for his first training session<\/strong>. Amid the hype you would expect for the player to have lifted the trophy more times than any other at the Masters 1000 in the Spanish capital (2005, 2010, 2013-14 &amp; 2017), the player from Manacor made his first contact with the clay in the Manolo Santana Stadium<\/strong> much to the delight of the fans who stayed on after the final match of the day.<\/p>\n

The 21-time Grand Slam champion chose the #MMOPEN to return to the ATP Tour after four weeks away from competition due to a fractured rib<\/strong> he picked up during the tournament in Indian Wells. Therefore, Nadal will be starting his clay swing, and the run up to the French Open, in Madrid.<\/p>\n

The current world No. 4 will be looking to pick up where he left off after a barnstorming start to the season that included twenty consecutive victories<\/strong>. During that spell of wins, Nadal captured a hat trick of titles at the ATP 250 in Melbourne, the Australian Open and the ATP 500 in Acapulco. It was in the first major of the season that, after a memorable comeback against Daniil Medvedev in the final, he pulled away from Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in the Grand Slam title race.<\/p>\n

Nadal will be defending the quarter-finals he reached at the #MMOPEN<\/strong> last season. There, it was Alexander Zverev<\/strong>, who went on to claim the title for the second time in the Caja M\u00e1gica, that ended his campaign for a sixth crown in Madrid. He also faces a huge challenge at this 20 th anniversary edition<\/strong> since, as well as having the German and the world No. 1 seeded above him, there are plenty of other strong candidates to the title.<\/p>\n

His compatriot Carlos Alcaraz<\/strong>, who is on the verge of his 19 th birthday, has already won a Masters 1000 this year in Miami and won on the clay of Barcelona last week. Neither can Greek player Stefanos Tsitsipas<\/strong> be overlooked. One of the biggest clay specialists, he reached the French Open final last year and has won the last two editions of the Monte Carlo tournament.<\/p>\n

Action in the ATP event gets underway on Sunday 1 May<\/strong>. The day before will see the start of the qualifiers with twelve spots up for grabs to complete the line-up of 56 players bidding to get their hands on the new Arete sculpture trophy, created by artist David Rodr\u00edguez Caballero for the 2022 champion.<\/p>\n

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A post shared by #MMOPEN (@mutuamadridopen)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n