Nadal battles to stay King of Clay

Andy Murray resumes his stop-start season at the Madrid Open this week having recovered from the elbow injury sustained against Rafa Nadal in Monte Carlo. The British number one was forced to withdraw from the Barcelona Open last month but returns for the Masters 1000 event where all the world’s top players will be in attendance. Murray can be picked up at 25/1 with Boylesports to claim the title he won back in 2008. The difference now is that the tournament is played on clay, not the hard cards that favour the Scotsman.

On this surface Nadal remains undisputed king. Last week the Spaniard became the first man to ever win two tournaments more than six times each after triumphing in Barcelona yet again. The world number one is just 2/5 to continue his utter dominance on clay where he is 34 consecutive matches unbeaten. He has actually lost in Madrid quite recently however; the 2009 final saw him lose out to Federer - the Swiss star is 12/1 with StanJames to repeat the trick in 2011.

But times appear to be changing with Novak Djokovic emerging as the greatest threat to Nadal in recent times. The Serbian is 7/2 to win in Madrid having gone unbeaten all year in a run of 27 matches that has led to five titles already. Having destroyed all-comers on the hard courts, the tennis world awaits with interest to see if he can now de-throne Nadal on clay.