Madrid - Without a doubt, this year, Madrid smells like Rafael Nadal. In the Spanish capital, he is always the favorite with the surface being his most dominant and with Spanish fans behind him, but this time, it must be added that it appears as though there is no apparent enemy in sight to jeopardize him winning his sixth trophy.

However, in tennis, as in all sports, there is nothing in writing, and there is always the possibility of surprise. But if Nadal doesn’t win, it would be quite the surprise.

On the clay in Monaco and Barcelona, Nadal not only did not lose a set, but it also took less time to win the titles. This year in Monaco, it took 6 hours and 57 minutes, 1 hour and 15 minutes less than Barcelona, which took 7 hours and 22 minutes, 3 hours and 7 minutes less than 2017.

Top-10 ranked Alexander Zverev, Grigor Dimitrov and Dominic Thiem, have seen how Nadal rolled them, without compassion, on the clay. For all these reasons, it is likely to think that the King of Clay - if there isn’t some strange conjugation of planets - will get his Madrid open for the sixth time.

As for the WTA, Simona Halep returns as favorite, but not as strong as Nadal. Although Halep has been the winner of the last two editions, joining Serena Williams as the only woman to repeat consecutively, she has been strongly contested recently.

Coco Vandeweghe, for example, surprised Halep in Stuttgart and reached the final where she lost to Pliskova. Apart from Coco and Pliskova, you must always count on Wozniacki to be a factor, along with Mladenovic and Muguruza, who owes a good performance to fans in her native country.

On the surface, the women's tournament appears more equal, without a large separation between the current number one and her closest rivals and that plays very well in Madrid. With the small gap, a surprise could be just around the corner.

What can you expect at the Open de Madrid 2018?

Well … good weather, good tapas, and of course, excellent tennis and great matches.  Let the show begin!