Madrid Open 2012: Stars Who Need to Impress Before French Open
With most of the top players in the world converging on Madrid this week for the 2012 Madrid Open, it gives us a chance to evaluate what players are going to be in the best position to win the French Open, which kicks off in less than two weeks.
A few elite players have taken time off prior to this event as a way to conserve stamina in anticipation of the big month ahead, and now they are ready to show what they can do before the second Grand Slam event of the year.
Here is a look at some of the top male stars who need to impress at the Madrid Open to build momentum in anticipation of a long run at the French Open.
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Federer has had an uneven start to the tournament. He did win, which is all that matters in the scheme of things, but he has shown a lot of holes in his game.
His lone victory to this point came against Milos Raonic in three sets on Wednesday. He dropped the first set, 4-6, before coming back to take the final two sets, 7-5, 7-6 (7-4). That could be just a one-time aberration that will propel him to victory.
Given Federer's inconsistent performance this year, the performance against Raonic is likely indicative of what we are going to see the rest of the season. If he is able to win this tournament, even with a series of close matches, that is going to be huge for his confidence heading into Roland Garros.
Tomas Berdych
Berdych has been making quite an impression in the Madrid Open already, with consecutive straight-set victories over Kevin Anderson and No. 12 Gael Monfils.
To date, Berdych, who is currently ranked No. 6 in the world rankings, has a 22-6 record and one title. That was at the ATP Open Sud de France in January. His stock has been climbing in recent weeks thanks to a semifinal appearance at the Rolex Masters event in mid-April, when he defeated Andy Murray and took Novak Djokovic to three sets.
He is going to be a dark horse going into the French Open, but is peaking so close to the French Open.
Nicolas Almagro
One of the most intriguing players on tour right now is Nicolas Almagro. He has made it through the first two rounds of the Madrid Open relatively unscathed and is on the verge of playing in his first quarterfinal since the Paribas Open in March.
Despite his lack of overall success, he is not losing to pushovers. Three of his last four tournament losses have come to No. 1 Novak Djokovic, No. 8 Mardy Fish and No. 11 Milos Raonic.
He played in one of the most memorable matches of the year against Tomas Berdych at the Australian Open. It went four sets and had three different tiebreakers. He has the game to make a deep run at the French Open; he just needs to harness all of his skills for two weeks to do it.
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