The business end of the 2024 Madrid Open is approaching, as another batch of third-round men's matches graced the Spanish clay during Monday's session, where a home favourite kept his hopes of a record-extending triumph alive.
One of the top seeds fell in the women's singles event, though, while one highly-rated teenager celebrated her 17th birthday in perfect fashion by reaching the last eight.
Here, Sports Mole rounds up the highlights of Monday's Madrid Open action.
Rafael Nadal overcomes tricky Pedro Cachin test
A sixth Madrid Open title remains firmly in the sights of Rafael Nadal, who dropped his first set of the tournament against Pedro Cachin following previous successes over 10th seed Alex de Minaur and American teenager Darwin Blanch.
However, a second-set blip did not prove too costly for the 37-year-old, who earned a pulsating 6-1 6-7[5] 6-3 victory in a three-hour marathon to book a fourth-round affair with the Czech Republic's Jiri Lehecka.
Nadal earned nine breaks against his Argentinian foe to the delight of the star-studded crowd, where Real Madrid legend Raul was among the notable faces in attendance, as he earned three successes at ATP level for the first time in nearly two years.
While admitting that he committed a few too many errors in the third set, Nadal praised his own unpredictability as he hit new heights in his eagerly-awaited comeback, raising expectations ahead of his beloved French Open.
Cameron Norrie exit ends British hopes
Cameron Norrie was the only man still flying the flag high for Great Britain as the second week of action began, and the national number one faced a particularly tricky test against fifth seed Casper Ruud.
Norrie had memorably got one over the Norwegian trailblazer at this year's Australian Open, but Ruud proved a class above on the clay, taking just 79 minutes to prevail 6-2 6-4 en route to the fourth round.
The former Wimbledon semi-finalist was broken five times and only won 54% of points behind his first serve against Ruud, who recovered from going down a break early in the second set.
On account of Monday's reverse, Norrie is still waiting for his first fourth-round Masters appearance of an indifferent 2024 so far, while Ruud can look forward to meeting Felix Auger-Aliassime with a quarter-final spot at stake.
Mirra Andreeva celebrates 17th birthday with victory
It was a day for the seeds to fall in the women's last-16 clashes, where Coco Gauff, Maria Sakkari, Jelena Ostapenko and Daria Kasatkina were among the revered names to miss out on a spot in the quarter-finals.
Among the victors, however, was teenage sensation Mirra Andreeva, who fronted up to 12th seed Jasmine Paolini on her 17th birthday and came up trumps 7-6[2] 6-4 to follow up her brilliant success over Wimbledon winner Marketa Vondrousova.
In doing so, Andreeva became the second-youngest woman to ever reach a WTA 1000 quarter-final in its current format, only being beaten by a then-16-year-old Gauff during the Dubai 2021 tournament.
An even sterner test will now await the Russian in the quarters, though, as she will meet Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka in her maiden Masters last-eight appearance. body check tags ::
