loads of expectations from rafa again at this tournament.......but i wudnt be dissapointed if he didnt even make it to the semis...just want him to be better prepared for rolland garros nd win it the 5th time......this tournament is really ill timed for rg!!!!!!!

Mistake Ricky?
3rd paragraph from bottom, last line: ..and Andy Murray, the world No. 3 (soon to be No. 4).
Doesn't Madrid favour Murray and big servers?

Remi, sorry to jump before Ricky do the same, but please read again: the whole paragraph talks about Djokovic, and same goes for this sentence - i.e. unlike Nadal, Murray & Federer - Djokovic (No. 3, soon to be No. 4) indeed was not resting during this week.

Nadal is going to be the first to win three consecutive ATP Masters Series titles if he gets this one.

Murray defends 1000 points on clay, so he may go to # 4 again.

Ricky, I know you have to give a balance to your preview, and of course it gets a bit trite to keep saying no one stands a chance against Rafa, if those are the people you think are most likely to cause him trouble, then it's very good news for Rafa.

The last time Rafa played Almagro on clay at RG in 2008, he beat him - 6:1 6:1 6:1; he played Montanes last at RG in 2007, and beat him 6:1 6:3 6:2; he beat the new improved Verdasco 6:3 6:3 when they played on clay in Rome only last week; the last time Ferrer beat Nadal on clay was in 2004 6:2 7:5.

posmatrac- Murray doesnt defend Madrid points this week.

Postmatrac Murray doesn't defend 1000 points here since the HC Madrid tournament was played in the fall.. he is defending his Hamburg points at this stage which isn't a lot and Djokovic is defending his Hamburg SF points.

remi and Hogar - yes, if you read it again you see "the world No. 3" is referring to Djokovic.

carrier - I completely agree with you. I don't think anyone has a chance against Nadal, much less guys like Almagro and Montanes (and even Verdasco). But the point remains that his quarter of the draw could have been much easier. This time he might even have to work hard to reach the semis!!

ok, so when is he defending his Madrid points?

Points are dropped after 52 weeks after each tournament; so his madrid points will be deducted during october

thanks orion.

I dont get it guys, why is Djoko soon to be number 4???? He is on fire recently and just cant stop wining and is only within 750 points off Fed, plus he just collected 250 points from the Serbian titie yesterday, and Murray is a fair bit off, if anything he should be able to catch up fed and what do you mean he's dropping off and soon to be No.4?????

sorry but it doesnt make any sense to me whatsoever, also Hamburg semi final last yr finish isnt a lot to defend while Fed has even more points to defend since he was in the Humburg final last yr, so if Djoko with a better finish in Madrid, say semi final while Fed was kicked out in the qurters stage, that means Fed would lose more points than he gained since he would lose all the final's points in Hamburg last yr and Djokovic would be even since his performance this yr match's last yrs.....does this make any sense????

in any case, can someone explain to me why Djoko is soon to be world No.4??? sUrely if he gets into semis again, then he wouldn't be losing any points from playing the Madrid Masters???????????????

AZN2NVY - it has nothing to do with who is playing well at any given time. Points are accumulated over a 52-week period. Rome was at the same time last year as Serbia was this year, so Djokovic is losing his champion's points from Rome 2008. Needless to say he didn't win close to enough points in Serbia in order to compensate for that loss. Therefore he drops to No. 4.

Murray, meanwhile, did nothing during last year's clay-court swing, so he is not defending any points anytime soon.

I wish Rafa all the best in Madrid.......but if he does not win the tournement.......i wont be too disappointed because like vreal.....i would like Rafa to be well rested and prepared for RGaros!

Thanks for the clarification Ricky.

But does anyone else think this new ATP points system is severely flawed or is it just me?? I mean the new ranking system just doesn't justify your ranking position, seriously for all that Djokovic has done he is BY FAR the 2nd best player in the world RIGHT NOW, and he's sitting 4th, Murray meanwhile who did inferior in Monte Carlo, knocked out 2nd round in Rome where Djoko reached final and sitting at home in front of his tele did nothing this week has somehow leapfrogged Djoko to 3rd while Djoko just won yet another tournament yesterday???? HOWS bullcra p is this system!!!!!

The way how nadal is winning tournaments, he'd have to be winning EVERY SINGLE clay tournament next yr if he is to stay world number one with something like 4000 points to defend from the AO and all the masters tournaments already, if he has a few hiccups here and there like a couple quraters finish here and there without wining the trophy he'll soon be slipping down to 4th, cos he didnt defend his titles he's won this yr?????? This is the biggest scam i've heard in any sport hands down!!!

AZN2NVY - you need to take another look at the ranking system. With all do respect, your first paragraph is almost completely incorrect, and your second paragraph is 100 percent entirely wrong.

I don't care--and the rankings don't care--what someone has done in the past month. They care what someone has done in the past YEAR. Until this clay-court swing, Murray was WAY better than Djokovic dating back to the second half of last year. I mean WAY better. The only surprising thing is that Murray did not take over No. 3 sooner than he did!

As for your second paragraph, I don't even know where to begin. Let's just say Nadal is nowhere close to losing the No. 1 ranking anytime soon.

ANZ2 it looks odd because Murray gained most of his points towards the end of last year, and Djokovic gained most of his at the beginning of the year, except for Shanghai, so his defense of his points have come earlier than Andy's. Andy will have his turn to defend his points later on in the year that's when the pressure will be on him. Murray would have been well placed to hold on to the No 3 ranking for a while if he had capitalised on the clay season to gain more points when he had hardly any to lose, so far he's only managed it in Monte Carlo. This is why I think not playing in Barcelona was a mistake.

The points are rolled over 52 weeks to date so it's fair that players hang on to their points for the same length of time, and not lose them if they re-schedule the tournaments. Rafa would have been No1 weeks earlier than he did, but Roger's points for one tournament (can't remember which one) did not come off when he failed to defend them because the tournament was re-scheduled earlier than it was the previous year. At the end of the day, the end of year rankings show the performance of the players during the whole year, so the more points you acquire during the year the higher you will be in the rankings.

If they do the rankings on a weekly basis on current performance, they won't know where they are as the rankings would be changing all the time, and seedings at tournaments would be impossible.

No problem Hogar thanks, and Ricky. Read too fast.
I Agree with MonaLisa and vreal - Nadal to rest more than win Madrid. We'll find out soon enough. I'm not even sure if I'd like to see a Rafa-Nole or a Rafa-Fed final - but definitely Rafa in the final and than biting the trophy :)