Sunday features the championship matches in both men’s singles and women’s doubles.
For the first time in over four years, a Masters 1000 singles final serves as a first-time meeting between its participants. Jack Draper is vying for his second Masters 1000 title of the season, while Casper Ruud is still looking to win his maiden Masters 1000 title after two prior losses in finals. Who will prevail on Sunday night in Madrid?
Earlier in the day, at 3:30pm local time to be exact, the women’s doubles championship will be decided. It will be Sorana Cirstea and Anna Kalinskaya vs. Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens. This is the first tournament for the partnership of Cirstea and Kalinskaya, who already upset both the top seeds and the third seeds. This is a seventh final for the team of Kudermetova and Mertens, but their first since 2022.
Casper Ruud (14) vs. Jack Draper (5) – Not Before 6:30pm on Manolo Santana Stadium
Draper is now a superb 19-4 this season, and has not dropped a set this fortnight despite his lack experience on clay. His sometimes awkward movement around the court on this surface hasn’t stopped him from clubbing winners and forging his way to his second Masters 1000 final. Jack is 3-2 in ATP finals, which includes a three-set loss earlier this year in Doha to Andrey Rublev, followed by a straight-set victory at Indian Wells over Holger Rune.
Ruud is 20-6 on the year, and has also not dropped a set to this stage. Yet unlike Draper’s semifinal against Lorenzo Musetti, where both players were playing aggressively and hitting winners, Ruud’s semifinal against Francisco Cerundolo was filled with nervous and passive play. It became a contest of who would make an error first, and featured a pretty low level of tennis.
And Casper will certainly be feeling pressure again on Sunday: while he’s the lower-ranked player, he’s the older and more experienced one. However, he’s 0-2 in Masters 1000 finals, and failed to win a set in either of those prior finals. Overall, Ruud is 12-12 in ATP finals, though he’s lost six of his last eight. On clay, he’s 11-6 in finals.
Draper is clearly the more confident and in-form player, yet Ruud is the far more accomplished player on this surface, which includes two appearances in Roland Garros finals. But Casper was battling some kind of rib injury during Friday’s semifinals, and appeared quite uncomfortable on-court at times. So in the altitude of Madrid, I’m backing the bigger-hitting Brit to claim his second Masters 1000 title in as many months.
