Andy Murray and Dominic Thiem both enjoyed routine wins on Tuesday at the 2017 Madrid Masters. Neither player faced a serious threat in the round of play. Murray defeated Marius Copil 6-4, 6-3 while Thiem defeated Jared Donaldson pretty much by the same score (6-3, 6-4). The two winners are in the same section of the draw and a quarterfinal showdown at the clay-court Masters event is certainly possible.

Thiem and Murray are one round away

In other for Murray and Thiem to meet, they would still each need to win their round-three matches. Murray could face Borna Coric, a recent title winner on clay and a lucky loser from Madrid's qualifying draw.

Thiem certainly won't have a dunk for a third-round match as he will face either Grigor Dimitrov or Ivo Karlovic. However, the Austrian is adept on clay and he should be able to negotiate his way to a final in Madrid this week. It seems that the major roadblock for Thiem at this point is Rafael Nadal, the winner from both Monte Carlo and Barcelona earlier this spring.

Thiem beat Murray not long ago

Murray and Thiem did meet in that same Barcelona tournament a couple of weeks ago, an event that was part of the 500 series on tour. The opponents met in the semifinal round of the draw with Thiem, a French Open semifinalist from a year ago, able to claim his first match-win off of the Scot.

While many might see Murray as a bigger threat for the 2017 Madrid Masters final than Thiem, in truth the result from Barcelona proves that it's the Austrian that should be the bigger headliner on clay.

Murray is certainly slumping through the first four months of the 2017 season and, to make matters worse, clay has historically been his worst surface. His 2016 season was a strong one by his clay-court standards, however that was an exceptional season for him.

The only other player to book a spot in the third round thus far is David Goffin.

The dark horse for the title defeated German player Florian Mayer. Goffin is on the bottom half of the draw and that's the same side as Nadal. Accordingly, if the Belgian is to advance to the final he would have to survive a half of the draw that has the tournament's favorite.

Don't look for Murray, Thiem, or Goffin on Wednesday's order of play.

They are a round ahead of the field at the moment. However, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are both on the schedule for Wednesday as they look to open their tournaments with victories following their first-round byes.