Sunday features the ATP singles final, as well as the WTA doubles final.
Sunday’s men’s singles championship match sees two surprising finalists: Andrey Rublev and Felix Auger-Aliassime. Rublev came into this event on a four-match losing streak, while Auger-Aliassime has struggled for over a year due to injuries and illness, and has never before appeared in a Masters 1000 final. With many top ATP players dealing with injuries, which of these two finalists will pick up more momentum ahead of Roland Garros?
Also on Sunday, at 3:30pm local time, it’s the women’s doubles championship match, featuring Barbora Krejcikova and Laura Siegemund (6) vs. Cristina Bucsa and Sara Sorribes Tormo (8). Krejcikova and Siegemund are playing for the first title of their new partnership for 2024, and defeated two of the top four seeds to advance to this final. Bucsa and Sorribes Tormo are two Spaniards who teamed up for this event, the biggest in their home country, though this will be the first seeded team they face this fortnight.
Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Andrey Rublev (7) – Not Before 6:30pm on Manolo Santana Stadium
Rublev is 20-8 on the year, and is into his first final since the first week of the year, when he was the champion in Hong Kong. Despite his lack of form upon arriving in Madrid, he’s won five matches with the loss of only one set, to Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals. And four of those five victories were over seeded opposition. This is a fifth Masters 1000 final for Andrey, and he is 1-3 in this round, though his only prior win came on clay, a year ago in Monte Carlo.
Auger-Aliassime has benefitted from one of the oddest paths to a championship match in tennis history. As per OptaAce on Twitter, he is the first player in Masters 1000 history to advance in three different rounds via retirement or walkover. Jakub Mensik retired during their second set, Jannik Sinner withdrew ahead of their quarterfinal, and Jiri Lehecka retired after just six games of their semifinal, all due to injury. However, Felix did also earn three victories in completed matches this fortnight, including an especially impressive one over Casper Ruud. And it was in straight sets.
Rublev leads their head-to-head 4-1, and also claimed their only clay court encounter, which was nearly six years ago in Umag. Auger-Aliassime’s sole win came two years ago on an indoor hard court in Rotterdam. All five matches have been quite tight, with four going the distance.
However, all evidence indicates Rublev is the favorite in Sunday’s final. Despite his four-match losing streak coming into this tournament, he’s been the much more in-form player these last two seasons. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this result comes right after Andrey’s 1,000 points from Monte Carlo last year came off his ranking. The pressure of defending a first big result like that often leads to poor results, while players often win another big title shortly after that pressure is alleviated.
Sunday’s full Order of Play is here.
