The Spanish starlet has reached the final of this tournament in 2022 and 2023 – beating Diego Schwartzman 6-4 6-2 to claim the crown two years ago before losing to Great Britain's Cameron Norrie 7-5 4-6 5-7 12 months later.

Alcaraz enjoyed a breakout year in 2023, winning Wimbledon and reaching the semi-finals of the French and US Opens. He also won the Argentina Open, Indian Wells Open, Barcelona Open, Madrid Open and Queens Club Championship, but failed to win any tournaments after his Wimbledon success in July.

His prowess on clay courts is exceptional, which should add to his favouritism here.  Over the last two seasons he is 54-7 on the surface and boasts a career-win percentage of 79.75% on the red stuff. He also has six tournament victories on clay in the past 24 months and nine ATP clay court titles in his career to date.

His biggest rival will be Norrie, who is currently the world number 19 and will be defending the crown he earned last year. The 28-year-old hasn't enjoyed a fruitful start to the 2024 season with a lone quarter-final appearance at the ATP 250 Auckland Open on his resumé. In addition to his 2023 Rio Open victory, the Brit also won on the clay at the ATP 250 Lyon Open in 2022.

Other threats in the draw are likely 2023 semi-finalist Nicolás Jarry as well as Argentinians Tomás Martín Etcheverry, Francisco Cerúndolo and Sebastián Báez.

Chilean Jarry is ranked one place lower than Norrie in the world rankings but is arguably a better talent on the surface. The 28-year-old has reached five ATP finals in his career, all on the clay, with three tournament victories – including two in 2023. He boasts a win percentage of 65.69% on the surface and is 23-8 over the past 12 months.

Of the Argentines, eyes turn to Báez who has four wins on the ATP Tour over the last two years, with three of those coming on clay. He also boasts 10 further clay triumphs on the Challenger and ITF Futures tours.

Báez was knocked out of the 2023 Rio Open in the quarter-finals by Jarry 7-6 6-3, and he is 0-2 in his career against Alcaraz and 0-2 against Norrie – he will need to defeat one of those opponents to reach the final in Rio.

All six players are currently taking part in the ATP 250 Argentina Open this week – at the time of writing Jarry and Etcheverry have qualified for the quarter-finals with Alcarez, Norrie and Báez looking to advance from the second round. Cerúndolo is already out, which will certainly raise the price of his odds for Rio.