Novak Djokovic has rested after pulling out of the 2015 Madrid Open, and he’s raring to get his fourth title at the 2015 Rome Open along with his fellow Big Four tennis stars: Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal. Nadal and Murray have been killing it at the Madrid Open and look like they could wind up head to head in the finals before taking on the Serbian number one ranked tennis player in the world.
Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal lead a stellar field, including nine of the Top 10 players in the Emirates ATP Rankings, at this year’s Internazionali BNL d’Italia, the fifth ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament of the year.
Bidding for his fourth title in Rome, defending champion Djokovic will open his campaign in the Italian city in the second round against the winner of Italian wild card Luca Vanni andNicolas Almagro, who has 12 ATP World Tour titles to his name, all on clay. The World No. 1 has a 29-5 match record in Rome and will look to win his fourth title in a row, following victories in Indian Wells, Miami and Monte-Carlo.
A quarter-final against fifth seed and recent Barcelona champion Kei Nishikori, who will open against the winner of Ernests Gulbis and young gun Jiri Vesely, looms for the top-seeded Serb.
Third seed Murray lies in Djokovic’s half of the draw. Two weeks after winning his first clay-court title in Munich, Murray will open his campaign against the winner of Jeremy Chardy and Lukas Rosol. Seventh seed David Ferrer, who will open against the winner of Richard Gasquet and a qualifier, has been drawn into Murray’s quarter.
Second seed Federer, a runner-up three times, will look to hoist the Rome trophy for the first time when he starts in the second round against the winner of Italian wild card Paolo Lorenzi and Pablo Cuevas. The World No. 2 hopes to regain momentum after a second-round loss to Nick Kyrgios in Madrid.
Federer’s quarter-final foe could be sixth seed Tomas Berdych or tenth seedGrigor Dimitrov, who opens against Jerzy Janowicz in the first round. A semi-final against 46-time clay-court titlist Nadal looms for the Swiss.
The fourth-seeded Spaniard hopes to hoist his eighth trophy in Rome. A runner-up to Djokovic last year, Nadal will open against the winner of Adrian Mannarino and a qualifier in the second round, with a potential quarter-final against eighth seed Stan Wawrinka.
There are six Italian players in the draw, with the most notable being World No. 31 Fabio Fognini, who will face American Steve Johnson in the first round, and Simone Bolelli, who will open against young gun Dominic Thiem.
Other notable first-round matches include: Ninth seed Marin Cilic vs Bucharest champion Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, No. 11 seed Feliciano Lopez vsNick Kyrgios, No. 12 seed Gilles Simon vs Jack Sock, No. 13 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs Sam Querrey and No. 15 seed Kevin Anderson vs Florian Mayer.
Main draw play begins on Sunday at the Foro Italico.