was going to make sense to the players that were playing on the field." T

Andy Murray won the Madrid Open last year but must fight his way through the worlds best players to defend his crown. Sky Live: Madrid Open Were live all week on Sky Sports Murray defeated clay court king Rafael Nadal 12 months ago to lift the Madrid title, a prize he first collected eight years ago to stake his claim as a talent worth keeping an eye on.Sky Sports have tried to plot Murrays route to this years final... Radek Stepanek - round of 32 Radek Stepanek has the first crack at Murray The Czech defeated Vasek Pospisil for the right to play Murray, and interestingly owns a victory in their recent match. That was two years ago at Queens, but Murray has an overall 5-2 winning record against the 37-year-old.Traditionally, Murray doesnt adapt to the clay season particularly quickly so Stepaneks best chances of a shock result could lay with the Brits rusty habits.Gilles Simon - last 16 Gilles Simon strikes a smash The Frenchman must first steer himself beyond Marcos Baghdatis then, in all likelihood, the unseeded Grigor Dimitrov to book a tie against Murray.Simon is the 16th seed in Madrid but also has a very poor head-to-head record against the Dunblane man. Murray has won 13 of their 15 matches - Simon won their very first meeting 11 years ago but also won in Rotterdam last year.Murray has won all four of their meetings at the Madrid Open and has also notched up clay court wins in Hamburg and Monte Carlo against this possible opponent.Tomas Berdych - quarter-final Kim Sears explicit language intensified the Murray-Berdych rivalry The Czech player is a long-time rival and an ominous potential opponent should both men secure quarter-final spots.Personal animosity stems from Berdychs use of Dani Vallverdu, who previously worked with Murray, as his coach. Murrays future wife Kim Sears became embroiled last year after swearing during a previous match between the pair.The world No 8 Berdych is on the wrong end of a 6-7 record against Murray, which is a very respectable tally considering one of his wins was during the 2013 Madrid Open. In total, three of Berdychs wins have been on clay. Expect more fireworks if both players advance this far.Rafa Nadal - semi-final Rafa Nadal has won eight of nine clay court games against Murray The greatest ever clay court players hopes of making the semi-final will have been boosted by Roger Federers late withdrawal - they were due to collide at the quarter-final stage.The path has become clearer for Nadal to force a rematch against Murray of last years final. The Spaniard holds a remarkable record against the Brit given the struggles with injury he has suffered in recent years - Nadal has won 17 and lost just six, and has won four of the last five.Murray may have beaten the clay king on his own patch last year, but Nadal has won their other nine meetings on the red dirt. Novak Djokovic - final Novak Djokovic has won his last five against Murray Intriguingly, the Djokovic-Murray wrote its first ever chapter at the 2006 Madrid Open before either man had reached the pinnacle of the sport that they now dominate.A decade ago, the mighty Serb won the last-16 clash and has won all three of their clay court match since - a worrying trend which Murray must try to buck in 2016.Djokovic, before entertaining the thought of this game, must negotiate a kind route into the semi-finals where No 7 seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is the most daunting test.Assuming Djokovic reaches the last match as expected, the world No 1 will aim for a fourth consecutive victory against Murray - he has won 11 of their last 12 matches dating back to the Brits famous 2012 Wimbledon triumph.Watch the Madrid Open on Sky Sports until the final on Sunday May 8. Also See: ATP schedule Sky Live Latest scores Get a NOW TV pass Video Nike Air Max Outlet . The 30-year-old Moore played in 13 games for the Saints last season, catching 37 balls for 457 yards and two touchdowns. Fake Nike Air Max . Amare Stoudemire had 22 points and 10 rebounds, Carmelo Anthony scored 21 and the New York Knicks won their eighth straight game, 93-92 over Philadelphia on Friday night, sending the Sixers to their 23rd straight loss. https://www.fakeairmaxwholesale.com/ . Particularly when speaking in the stadium of Tuesdays opponent: Manchester City. "Maybe they dont fear us as before," Pique said on Monday, "because in the last two years we didnt win the Champions League. Fake Nike Air Max China . After making his All-Star debut in Fridays Rising Stars Challenge, the Raptors sophomore centre wont be sticking around for the duration of the weekends festivities, thinking about the big picture instead. Nike Air Max From China . When a game is in the balance, however, they still have the personnel and the experience to end up with the two points. NEW YORK -- Rather than ban home plate collisions outright, Major League Baseball and its players adopted a rule limiting them this season. In what both sides said was a one-year experiment, the rule allows collisions if the catcher has the ball and is blocking the runners direct path to home plate, and if the catcher goes into the basepath to field a throw to the plate. "Its not a radical departure from what it had been," Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon said. The new rule, 7.13, states "a runner attempting to score may not deviate from his direct pathway to the plate in order to initiate contact with the catcher (or other player covering home plate)." A runner violating the rule shall be declared out, even if the fielder drops the ball. "Its good, I think it takes away the malicious intent behind the play at the plate," Texas Rangers catcher J.P. Arencibia said. "Obviously the runner doesnt always have to slide, and the catcher still has the ability to block the plate once he has the ball in hand." Along with the rule, the sides agreed to a pair of comments umpires use for interpretation. The first comment says "the failure by the runner to make an effort to touch the plate, the runners lowering of the shoulder, or the runners pushing through with his hands, elbows or arms, would support a determination that the runner deviated from the pathway in order to initiate contact with the catcher in violation." The comment says players who slide appropriately are not in violation of the rule. The second comment says that "unless the catcher is in possession of the ball, the catcher cannot block the pathway of the runner as he is attempting to score." The runner shall be declared safe if the catcher violates that provision.dddddddddddd In addition, it is not a violation "if the catcher blocks the pathway of the runner in order to field a throw, and the umpire determines that the catcher could not have fielded the ball without blocking the pathway of the runner and that contact with the runner was unavoidable." "There are some things that often times can make the water a little muddy," union head Tony Clark said after meeting with the New York Yankees. "Over the course of the off-season, the concern was protecting players, but trying to draw up something that not only made sense on paper, but also was going to make sense to the players that were playing on the field." The umpire crew chief can use the new video-review system to determine whether the rule was violated. "It stops guys just going out of their way just to try to dislodge the baseball when they (catchers) have the plate," Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington said. Debate over plate collisions has intensified since May 2011, when San Franciscos Buster Posey was injured as the Marlins Scott Cousins crashed into him at the plate. Posey, an All-Star catcher, sustained a broken bone in his lower left leg and three torn ligaments in his ankle, an injury that ended his season. In Game 5 of last years AL championship series, Detroit backstop Alex Avila was pulled a couple of innings after being run over at the plate by Bostons David Ross, a fellow catcher. "I think its fair. A runners path is to home plate," Oakland catcher Derek Norris said. "Any deviation and hes not trying to score, hes trying to harm. A runner going out of the basepath trying to break up a double play is declared out. This is the same concept as a double-play slide." ' ' '