A third round match involving this pair of tennis stars? What a treat. This could well have been the final line-up, if Del Potro wasn't still trying to get his ranking higher after injury to get seeded in these types of tournaments. Instead the tall powerful Argentinian will take on the ultimate clay court king Rafa Nadal in the early rounds. The Madrid crowd are surely in for a great match.
Rafa Nadal lost only 8 points in his entire match with Marcos Baghdatis today and faced no-break points. He has been unbeatable on clay for such a long time, I think fans have stopped counting the amount of matches. He simply loves the surface and he is confident against anyone he plays, even the greats. The Spaniard will get plenty of home support in Madrid from a partisan crowd and he is likely to attack Del Potro from the start and move his opponent around the court as much as possible, taking the power off the Del Potro shots as much as possible. Nadal has a great tennis brain and will know how to confuse his opponent and mix up play at the right momnet before unleashing his perfectly postioned shots. There is nothing anyone can teach him about clay court tennis - he knows it all.
Del Potro will have to start confidently too. He went one better than Nadal when he dropped just 7 service points in his entire match with Marin Cilic. The huge serve of the Argentinian combined with the immense power he can generate will give him plenty of points against Nadal, but the concern is - will he be able to keep up the consistency against Nadal. One bad game from Juan and Nadal will be all over him. Del Potro though is on a winnning streak in clay and will be no push over.
The pairing have played 8 times before with Nadal leading 5-3. The only time they played on clay was back in 2007, with Nadal winning in the French Open in straight sets. I think Del Potro has improved dramatically since then and is a complete player now. He has won a Grand Slam and handles pressure well.
I think this could be a cracking match, and we could see many more between these two in the coming years. I ultimately would love Del Potro to upset the odds here and take a win in Madrid, by my head says Nadal will be just too good for Juan. The odds on a Nadal win are so short that it isn't worth betting on. Simply sit back and relax and watch a great match between two current stars of the game. If you really want to punt then maybe a games handicap is the way to go, or a Del Potro upset offers attractive odds.
Match Prediction: Rafa Nadal to win.
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