noticias y fotos

Nadal, Djokovic, Delpo make their debuts

Rafael Nadal will share the Magic Box spotlight with some of the biggest names in tennis when he makes his long-awaited first appearance at the Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open on Wednesday.

And, as the tournament heads into its fifth day, Novak Djokovic, Juan Martin Del Potro and Andy Roddick all join Mallorca-born Nadal on centre stage.

World No.1 Rafa faces Austria’s Jurgen Melzer, the man he beat in the quarterfinals of the Beijing Olympics, in his opening match. Not surprisingly, Melzer doesn’t hold out great

hopes of beating the Spanish hero on home soil.

“He killed me at the Olympics last year so I would have to play the best match of my life and still hope that he has a bad day,” said Melzer of his prospects against the man who has won three-consecutive clay court titles in the lead-up to Madrid.

“He hasn’t lost for a while on clay and the way he plays and the energy that he puts on the court, it feels like an avalanche is coming right at you. I would have to serve really well and put a lot of pressure on him and then we would see.”

Serbia’s Djokovic takes on wildcard Oscar Hernandez in his first outing of the tournament. The No.3 seed beat his Spanish opponent 6-1 6-2 in their only previous meeting, at Monte

Carlo earlier this year.

No.5 seeded Juan Martin Del Potro takes on world No.22 Tomas Berdych in the first encounter of his Madrid campaign. Berdych has not dropped a set to his more highly-ranked opponent in their two previous meetings, last year in Tokyo and at a challenger in the Czech Republic in 2006.

Andy Roddick joins the fray fresh from his honeymoon with wife Brooklyn Decker, facing tournament qualifier Tommy Haas in the second round.

German Haas, the world No.75, has beaten his American opponent on seven of their 11 previous meetings. Roddick has the edge over Haas this year, however, having won their San Jose

quarterfinal 7-5 6-4.

As the men complete their first round matches the women’s third round line-up will be finalized with Dinara Safina, Victoria Azarenka and Svetlana Kuznetsova all taking to the court for the first time.

World No.1 Safina plays No.28 Na Li who she beat en route to her Beijing Olympics silver medal in 2008. Interestingly Chinese woman Li has beaten the Russian on the only other two occasions the pair have faced one another, in the third round of Australian Open 2007 and on clay in Estoril in 2005.

Safina’s fellow Rome finalist, No.6 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, has beaten her second round

opponent, Kateryna Bondarenko in all three of their previous meetings.

Similarly, No.7 seed Azarenka has never lost to her opening match opponent, Shuai Peng of China. The Belarusian is enjoying the best season of her career to date having reached the semifinal or better of five tournaments this season including Rome last week.