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Bianca Andreescu, Barbora Krejcikova, Jessica Pegula and Victoria Azarenka are some of the other notable names in the top half of the draw. Some interesting first-round matches in this section include Elina Svitolina against Aliaksandra Sasnovich, and Sloane Stephens taking on Jaqueline Cristian.

Former World No. 2 Anett Kontaveit will take on Czech Republic's Karolina Muchova in the first round of the 2023 Madrid Open.

Jessica Pegula didn't compete last week, but remains steady at No. 3. Meanwhile, Ons Jabeur's campaign in Stuttgart ended on a sour note as she picked up an injury during her semifinal clash against Swiatek, forcing her to retire. The Tunisian is a non-mover at No. 4 this week.

Jabeur will be hoping for a speedy recovery as she's defending a big chunk of her ranking points over the next few weeks. She's the defending champion at the Madrid Open and finished as the runner-up at last year's Italian Open as well.

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Zverev has not yet booked his place in the ATP Finals as he needs more wins. A win over Rublev would get him closer to that goal, but it won't be easy. As a former champion of this event, Zverev enjoys playing here, but Rublev won here as well, so it promises to be a really close and good battle

They could both come to Madrid with titles under their belts and will take some stopping. With Madrid being played on altitude, the conditions should favor Rublev whose ground strokes will pierce through the court at a much faster rate.

Holger Rune could have a very difficult time defending his title given his form lately and the level of other players present. Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev are the top three seeds at the Paris Masters and each of them can challenge for the title.

The other half of this quarter has Felix Auger-Aliassime and Frances Tiafoe, who are seeded seventh and ninth, respectively. While the likes of Ben Shelton and Francisco Cerundolo can put up a tough fight, the Round of 16 tie should be between Auger-Aliassime and Tiafoe. The Canadian should be able to defeat Tiafoe and book his place in the quarterfinals of the Madrid Open.

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Alcaraz will have to wait a while before he has a shot at ascending to the top of the rankings. He's the defending champion at the Madrid Open and even after Djokovic's withdrawal, he won't be able to reach the summit. However, the Spaniard could reclaim the No. 1 ranking if he does well at the Italian Open.

Daniil Medvedev and Casper Ruud swapped places with each other to be ranked No. 3 and No. 4 respectively.

Second seed Carlos Alcaraz will be eager to have a good run in Paris after his fourth-round exit from the Shanghai Masters. The Spaniard's potential opponents include Cameron Norrie and 16th seed Karen Khachanov, but he should be able to make it to the quarterfinal.

The Rolex Paris Masters is upon us, which means the season is wrapping up for a whole host of players on the ATP Tour. After this Masters 1000 tournament, there are only a pair of 250s on the schedule (Metz and Sofia) followed by the Nitto ATP Finals for the top eight.

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Unsurprisingly, every one of the top 17 players in the world and 31 of the top 32 are taking the court in Paris as they try to close out their 2023 campaigns in style. Both No. 1 Novak Djokovic and No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz are back in action; Djokovic has played just one match since the U.S. Open and Alcaraz skipped Basel this past week due to injury.

Will either Djokovic or Alcaraz carry momentum into Turin in the form of a title in Paris, or are some upsets in the cards? Let’s take a look at what could be in store for the Paris Masters.

When it comes to this one, it's shaping up to be one that Zverev kind of has to win. He's been really solid indoors for a very long time, but there are also ways Rublev can hurt him. The power the Russian has is one way, but then Zverev also has his serve, which can power him past those tricky situations.

The other half of this quarter has seventh seed Stefanos Tsitsipas and tenth seed Alexander Zverev. While Felix Auger-Aliassime should not be written off, it will most likely come down to the Greek and the German for a place in the last eight.

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Zverev looks in much better form than he was at the start of the year and he should be able to beat Tsitsipas to reach the quarterfinal of the Paris Masters.

Zverev and Rublev played many times before with the German having a lead. He won 5 of those matches, while Rublev won three. Two matches were played this year, and both went the way of Rublev which is interesting. 

Alcaraz made easy work of Zverev when the two faced in the last eight of the 2023 US Open and while we may not see a one-sided match, there is a good chance of the Spaniard coming out on top and reaching the semifinal of the Paris Masters.

The Russian has been one of the most in-form players over the last couple of months, snatching up four trophies in that time frame. Ruud, on the other hand, has continued to perform poorly throughout the season. He suffered yet another early exit, this time at last week's Barcelona Open.

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One of Raducanu's long-time sponsors, Vodafone configured a live hologram set-up for the Brit right at her training base in Abu Dhabi. The session was powered by the company's high-speed 5G network and allowed Raducanu to remotely guide her young pupils practicing all the way in London.

The technology marked the first such endeavor in the sport and is expected to revolutionize coaching by bridging the gap between quality mentorship and talent from around the world. Young tennis aspirants Sam and T'nae received lessons in technique from Raducanu, who hailed the hologram technology for its extensive potential.

The surface, though, suits Bronzetti better, so it is a question of if she can remember what it means to win again at this level.

Anastasia Potapova is on the verge of breaking the top 20 for the first time. She’s had a fabulous year, making at least the quarterfinals in four tournaments and winning her second career title in Linz. She has scored three top-10 wins this season and will be a thorn in any player’s game.

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This has been a pretty heated matchup over the years and they’ve already played each other twice in 2023. They also split their only two clay-court meetings, both in Rome (2018 and 2019). The faster clay also suits them both with Karolina Pliskova taking the title here five years ago, while Maria Sakkari was unlucky to be forced to retire here last year. As such, this looks like another meeting between them that is very hard to predict. Pliskova usually looks really good at this venue though.

Like most Italian players she was brought up on clay, and she has already enjoyed some joy on it in her professional career, winning five ITF singles and four doubles titles on the surface, and reaching her first WTA final last year on home soil in Palermo, where she was beaten by the Romanian, Irena=Camelia Begu.

Raducanu pointed out that she could assess the young duo's shot-making in real-time and give feedback immediately. Later on, Sam and T'nae also got the opportunity to take hologram selfies with the British superstar.

However, Bronzetti has yet to win a singles match on the main tour this year, although she did rediscover some form by making the final of an ITF event in France at the beginning of this month, a hard court event, eventually losing to the British player Jodie Burrage.

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Since then, she played in another ITF event in Switzerland, this time on clay, but lost in the first round.

Caroline Garcia and Anastasia Potapova will square off on Friday looking to break a 1-1 head-to-head split. Garcia is the No. 4 seed in Stuttgart but has been playing inconsistent tennis over the last six weeks. Potapova, on the other hand, holds a 12-3 record since early February and is coming off a 6-2 6-3 win over Coco Gauff. The 22-year-old Russian is coming into her own and holds a career-high ranking of No. 24. I expect Potapova to be able to force Garcia deep into the court, forcing her to come up with small-margin winners to break through. Ultimately, I trust the 22-year-old to power her way into the semis.

In a rematch of their Miami clash, Anastasia Potapova and Coco Gauff will likely put on a fantastic show. Potapova took their last meeting–this almost feels more dangerous for Gauff than that match, however. If the American is at all off in her movement, the time afforded to Potapova’s forehand will be absolutely devastating. Gauff wasn’t completely convincing against Kudermetova in her first-round so we’re going to back the Russian to pull off an other tight win.

Kontaveit then returned to action to represent her country in the Billie Jean King Cup earlier this month. She won three of her four singles ties, with her sole loss coming at the hands of Despina Papamichail.

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Emma Raducanu kickstarted her 2023 claycourt season in Stuttgart last week. Having made the quarterfinals last year, the young Brit fell at the first hurdle against 2017 Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko in a 6-2, 6-1 loss.

Raducanu has been subjected to recurring wrist injury issues this season and will be hoping to regain full fitness ahead of the arduous claycourt swing. It was this surface where the 19-year-old was able to notch a string of victories last year after a lackluster spell on the hardcourts following her US Open triumph.

Once ranked inside the top 10 in the world, Emma Raducanu is learning to earn her way back from her current ranking of No. 85 in just her second full season on the WTA tour.

The Brit is set to compete at the WTA 1000 event in Madrid this week and has found herself in the top half of the draw alongside World No. 1 Iga Swiatek and former French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova. She is slated to take on a qualifier in her opening round match.

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Muchova, meanwhile, started the season with a quarterfinal finish at the ASB Classic, but fell in the second round of the Australian Open. She reached her second quarterfinal of the year at the Dubai Tennis Championships, but withdrew prior to her match against Jessica Pegula due to an injury.

The Czech then made it to the last eight of the BNP Paribas Open, where she was knocked out by eventual champion Elena Rybakina in three sets. Her journey at the Miami Open ended in the third round against Sorana Cirstea.

It’s no secret clay is Karolina Pliskova’s least favourite surface. She can still hit a mean ball on the surface, however, and in the steady indoor conditions of Stuttgart, the difference in pace makes little difference given the insane trajectory of Pliskova’s serve.

Donna Vekic will have the advantage from the back of the court and absolutely shouldn’t be underrated. There are sleeping giant qualities to Pliskova’s game that can’t be ignored, however. She’s scored a lot of wins this year without much recognition, dispatching very tough opponents without receiving the plaudits. This one will be close but a deep run at a tournament is overdue for the Czech

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Veronika Kudermetova beat Coco Gauff in Doha earlier this year. Now they’re meeting on the American’s turf (clay), but are they? The indoor courts in Stuttgart play much faster and will give Kudermetova some options in terms of rushing the youngster’s forehand. However, her form has been really uninspiring and she just doesn’t present the sort of quality that would make you think she’s going to stick around the top 10. Gauff will.

Current world No. 1 Iga Swiatek squares off against former world No. 1 Karolina Pliskova with a spot in the Stuttgart semifinals on the line. In their only previous meeting back in 2021, Swiatek double-bageled Pliskova in the Rome final. That result will certainly not be repeated, but Pliskova faces an up-hill challenge against the Pole. Having won just one title in five events this season, Swiatek has taken the clay courts of Stuttgart with the mission of defending her title on her mind. She will enter this match focused and ready to compete. Her consistency and variety will be too much for Pliskova.

Injuries have derailed Kontaveit's career since last year. Muchova is no stranger to physical issues either, having dealt with a fair share of them herself over the years. The Czech is in much better form now, so she'll start off as the overwhelming favorite.

Jule Niemeier has been showing her peak level mostly at the Slams recently, struggling to grab wins consistently. She’s got a huge game though and no one would be shocked if she peaked and eliminated Elena Rybakina here. She also played a Billie Jean King Cup match in this venue over the weekend, while the Kazakh was battling Poland at home (also on indoor clay). Rybakina’s so mentally tough that she’ll probably take it, but could be in trouble if we see an inspired display from Niemeier.

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