Rafael Nadal could soon have a chance at revenge against Dominic Thiem, who snapped the Spaniard's 50-sets and 21-match clay-court win streaks on Friday during their Mutua Madrid Open quarter-final.
Nadal and Thiem could meet again next week in the Rome quarter-finals, should the seeds hold at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia, the season's third and final ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament on clay, which starts Monday.
The top-seeded Nadal, after a first-round bye, could meet countryman Fernando Verdasco and then possibly #NextGenATP Canadian Denis Shapovalov, who's in the Madrid quarter-finals, or 15th seed Tomas Berdych.
Thiem will face either home favourite Fabio Fognini or Frenchman Gael Monfils in the second round. The sixth-seeded Austrian and 12th seed Sam Querrey of the U.S. will be the favourites to face Nadal in the quarter-finals. Nadal leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head series with Thiem 6-3, but Thiem won their most-recent contest on Friday and beat Nadal in the 2017 Rome quarter-finals in straight sets.
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Novak Djokovic, the 11th seed and 2017 finalist, has been drawn in the same half and has a potential path of Ukraine's Alexandr Dolgopolov, a qualifier and then likely Spain's Albert Ramos-Vinolas or eighth seed John Isner of the U.S.
Isner won his maiden Masters 1000 title last month in Miami and is into the Madrid quarter-finals against Alexander Zverev, the man he beat in the Miami final. Third seed Grigor Dimitrov, the highest seed in this quarter, could meet Kei Nishikori or Spain's Feliciano Lopez in the second round, with Russian Karen Khachanov, six-time ATP World Tour titlist Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany, 13th seed Jack Sock of the U.S. or Spain's David Ferrer waiting in the third round.
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On the other half of the draw, Stan Wawrinka, recovering from a calf injury, will make his clay-court season debut against Steve Johnson of the U.S. Wawrinka has not played since February 22, when he retired in the second round of the Open 13 Provence in Marseille.
The Wawrinka-Johnson winner will meet 10th seed Pablo Carreno Busta or Jared Donaldson of the U.S., with seventh seed Kevin Anderson the favourite to meet the winner of that in the third round.
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Nadal-Thiem is not the only potential blockbuster quarter-final in Rome. Second seed and defending champion Alexander Zverev and fifth seed Juan Martin del Potro could meet in Zverev's quarter. The German will face a qualifier or Italian wild card Matteo Berrettini in the second round, with either 16th seed Lucas Pouille of France or Brit Kyle Edmund likely to meet Zverev in the third round.
Del Potro might face Croatia's Borna Coric, who has reached two Masters 1000 quarter-finals this year, or a qualifier in the second round, and possibly ninth seed David Goffin in the third round.