There are Mayer, Davy, Monfils, Berdych, Ljuby and Simon in Murray's draw. It won't be easy for Murray to get to the semi. Nowadays that's no easy draw, unless you're Rafa on clay. Well Rafa may also have his hands full, if Delpo is reportedly in good if not peak form at the moment.

lucky, did u know Andy is working with Cahill in Madrid? Am pleased. Rafa can beat Delpot becos Rafa is not afraid of his forehand. He will draw him out wide on that side, then plop the ball behind him. Delpot has a massive wing span but doesn't move well.

lucky, none of these players are real threat to Andy...I actually think he is pleased with his draw, no Spanish players who can drag the ball for ages ;-)...Simon lost to Milos and he just is not ready to deal with Andy...Davy is still euphoric about driving his new BMW so he will not be that focused and he may as well lose to Berdy...Murray is really looking good to reach semis...

deuce I've heard about that. It seem to me that the Madrid court surface is like a hard court surface. I see some good clay court players being knocked out early, the likes of Almagro, Stan and now Montanes. I think only the top class clay court players can survive here, together with those big hitters. I see Cilic also gets through to the next round, beating a clay courter Potito Starace. Murray may do well here too, as the courts here are more like hard courts.

natashao, I am thinking the win in Munich may help Davy regain his confidence and put his game back on track. In fact I think Davy is the most likely person to stop Murray, if both can get that far. If not him then maybe Monfils or Mayer. I'm not counting on Berdych, as he seems to have some problems, illness I think, bothering him earlier on in the other tournaments and so he doesn't have much clay court matches under his belt. A Murray/Davy or Murray/Monfils match should be interesting. In fact there's so many combinations that are interesting to me: Murray/Nole, Murray/Ferrer, Davy/Ferrer, Davy/Nole.

I tend to think Andy is a bad match for Davy, and don't think Davy can stop Murray simply because Murray's tennis does not suit Davy at all...I would always place my bet on Andy vs. Davy as log as Andy does not have his mental lapses for no obvious reason...but you are right, those possible showdowns you mention would really be interesting to watch...

I think Davy at his best can beat Murray on a clay court. Davy can take the ball early and moves well on clay. The problem is Davy is not at his best now, and it's more like a hard court here at Madrid. Still,Murray may not play well at all, we just don't know which Murray will turn up. Nole had to fight hard against Davy practically all the time, so that encounter should be very interesting.

I see Ferrero has to fight hard against De Bakker now. De Bakker can really serve big. I see all the big servers, big hitters doing well here. Maybe that's Ion Tirac's idea, getting the clay court to play like a hard court, so that hopefully it's not always the Spaniards winning all the time. Players like Fed, Nole, Murray and Delpo may get to win the title here some day despite the presence of Rafa. Fed has already won his, we'll see what other players can do.

Apart from Madrid's height I don't know what this Tiriac is doing to these courts to make them faster, does anybody know?