Madrid Masters Day 8 Tips: Khachanov facing huge task against Alcaraz

• Market strong on Alcaraz after thrashing Zverev

• Spaniard in ominous form ahead of Roland Garros

• Coric with great opportunity to reach Masters semi-final

Alcaraz huge favourite over Khachanov

Following yesterday's entire fourth round, there's just action from the top half of the draw today with tournament favourite Carlos Alcaraz facing Karen Khachanov, and Daniel Altmaier versus Borna Coric. Action starts later than previously in the tournament, with the Alcaraz match starting not before 15:00 UK time, and Coric match starting not before 20:30 UK time.

In the first clash, Alcaraz is perhaps unsurprisingly an overwhelming favourite against Khachanov, currently trading at a mere 1.081/12 to get the job done and progress to the semi-finals. The Spanish phenomenon dropped just three games yesterday as he thrashed Alexander Zverev, winning 62% of points in the match and creating 10 break points, facing none on his serve.

Previous clashes give Khachanov little optimism

This extended Alcaraz's winning run on clay to eight this season and he's dropped just one set in those eight - against Emil Ruusuvuori here in his opener - and is running at in excess of 112% combined service/return points won in those matches.

Not only this, but Alcaraz has easily disposed of Khachanov twice in their previous meetings last season, leading 5-0 in sets and 30-11 in games, which probably illustrates the size of the task for Khachanov today as well as anything.

In those, Khachanov has been broken in 50% of his service games, but breaking Alcaraz on just the one occasion, again illustrating the dominance of Alcaraz in those earlier clashes.

Lucky loser Altmaier likely to see journey end

The market is anticipating Coric versus Altmaier to be a little more competitive. Coric is the 1.68/13 favourite, and it's good to see the Croat getting back to a decent level after long-term injury.

It's probably too late for him to realise the potential which I thought would make him a contender for major tournaments on a regular basis, but he's got an excellent opportunity to make a Masters semi-final today.

This has certainly been a mixed year for Coric so far, but impressive underdog wins over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Hubert Hurkacz here are decent statements, and he should have too much for Altmaier.

The German is a lucky loser, having been beaten by Jurij Rodionov in qualifiers, and he's benefited from the draw opening up for him, not facing an opponent in the top 80 so far.

Altmaier has a losing record on clay in his career, and should see his journey end if Coric is anywhere near back to his best. However, numbers do make the market pricing fairly accurate, and if Coric was closer to the 1.705/7 mark I'd be more tempted with a recommendation here.