Casual tennis fans often assume that Spanish players are naturally adept on clay courts, but a crash course in South America this past off-season helped Enrique Lopez-Perez start to feel comfortable on the dirt and produce some of the best results of his career.

The 24-year-old started the year by going on a tear in Futures events, compiling a 21-3 record in five tournaments and winning two of them. Lopez-Perez built on that momentum last month by coming through qualifying to reach the semi-finals of the ATP Challenger Tour event in Barletta, Italy, and made his first Challenger final the following week at another Italian tournament in Turin. Switching back to hard courts at this week’s ATP Challenger Tour event in Karshi, Uzbekistan, Lopez-Perez won the doubles title with Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan

Having started the year at No. 479 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, he has already cut his ranking in half. Lopez-Perez admitted that he has more experience on hard courts, but said his time in South America showed him that he’s capable of being an all-surface player.

“I don’t have clay courts in my city and only practice on hard courts, so I took a coach and went down to South America for a month to practice on clay courts for the first time. My results on clay have been much better since then,” said Lopez-Perez. “Playing on hard courts in Karshi wasn’t difficult because I’m able to switch surfaces pretty easily, plus the staff here is working well and doing everything they can to help the players.”

Perhaps most importantly, Lopez-Perez is now injury free after receiving extensive treatment on his wrist. He said the time away from the tour may have also been a blessing in disguise because it allowed him to work on other areas of his game.

“I didn’t get to play that much last year, so I worked on my fitness a lot more than usual and now I’m in better shape,” he said. “I’m starting to feel a little bit of pain in the wrist after playing so many matches this year (49 singles matches in total), but I’m still healthy and able to play at the moment.”

Lopez-Perez said his start to 2016 has surpassed his initial expectations, but there’s still one main goal he has yet to achieve.

“I want to win my first ATP Challenger Tour singles title,” he said. “Once I do that, maybe I’ll head to the U.S. this summer and start to play some of the bigger tournaments on hard courts.”

Novak Djokovic now stands alone.

The World No. 1, who was tied with Rafael Nadal with 28 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles, won his 29^th championship at the Mutua Madrid Open on Sunday. The Serb overcame a worthy fight from defending champion Andy Murray 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in two hours and six minutes.

The 28 year old continued his mastery over the game’s best. He has won 33 of the past 35 sets against Top 10 opponents, over a stretch of 15 matches. He’s also won five of the past six and 10 of the past 14 Masters 1000 titles. Djokovic also pulled level with Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras for sixth on the Open Era titles list with title No. 64.

“It’s obviously very flattering to be alongside such legends of the sport, tennis players that I was looking up to, especially Pete Sampras. When I was growing up he was ruling the tennis world,” Djokovic said. “It’s an achievement that I’m very proud of. As you said, it’s a motivation for more. When you get to this particular phase of your career, you need to constantly look for more ways of inspiring and motivating yourself to keep going.”

Murray has felt Djokovic’s reign. The Scot is 24-3 on clay during the past two years, and two of the losses have come against Djokovic. The World No. 2 also is 2-14 against Djokovic since October 2012. “We played in a lot of big matches. Up until the last couple years it was extremely close,” Murray said. “Obviously [I’ve] managed to win a couple of the big ones against him; lost some tough ones.”

Djokovic looked like he would dominate the pair’s 32^nd meeting in the early going. Murray had erased more than 80 per cent of break points faced in Madrid before Sunday. But he was broken to start the match and again in the first set. Djokovic especially pounced on Murray’s second serve, winning five of those six points in the opener.

Murray, meanwhile, struggled against Djokovic’s serve. The No. 1 seed lost only three points on his serve during the first set (16/19) and gained the early lead in 31 minutes. “He played unbelievable at the start,” Murray said.

But Murray responded in the second set, striking deep groundstrokes to keep Djokovic back. Murray held to start the set and later earned his first break of the match on a Djokovic double fault to go up 3-1. He consolidated the break with powerful serving and served out the set at 5-3 with a drop-shot winner. “He started serving very well, especially down the T and deuce side,” Djokovic said. “Very precise and very strong, and he was backing that serve up with aggressive first shots.”

The two exchanged breaks early in the third. But Djokovic earned another at 3-2 and erased seven break points at 5-3 to win his second title in Madrid. “Of course I did not want to let that service game go because I know that Andy will capitalise on his opportunities and [would] start to play better if he broke my serve,” Djokovic said. “So I fought. I fought very hard, and I’m just glad that I managed to finish that game.”

The Belgrade native will receive 1,000 Emirates ATP Rankings points and €912,900. Murray will receive 600 Emirates ATP Rankings points and €447,630. He also will fall to No. 3 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, having needed to retain the title to remain at No. 2. Roger Federer will take his place in the second spot.

FINALS PREVIEW: Ten years ago in Madrid, a pair of 19-year-olds born a week apart played for the very first time on the ATP World Tour. The careers of Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray come full circle at Caja Mágica on Sunday when the World No. 1 and World No. 2 contest their 32nd match (Djokovic leads 22-9). Their first encounter was in the Round of 16, but this time the Mutua Madrid Open championship, ATP Masters 1000 title record, and No. 2 ranking are all on the line.

Watch the final live at tennistv.com

Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are tied with 28 ATP Masters 1000 titles – most since the series of nine elite events was introduced in 1990. The Serb is on a remarkable run at the best tournaments on tour and against the greatest players in the world. It takes two out of three sets to win a match, but Djokovic has dropped only one of his last 32 sets against Top 10 opponents, a stretch of 14 straight victories. Djokovic has also won four of the last five and nine of the last 13 ATP Masters 1000 titles.

However, Murray has won more Mutua Madrid Open championships than Djokovic, whose lone title in the Spanish capital came five years ago. Murray, the 2008 and 2015 Madrid champion, is coming off straight-set wins over the fifth-ranked Nadal and eighth-ranked Tomas Berdych. Though he is 0-3 against Djokovic on clay, Murray is one of the most improved players on the surface. The Brit had a 63-37 clay-court record with no finals appearances entering the 2015 season. He is 24-2 on clay since then, highlighted by back-to-back titles at Munich and Madrid last May.

Murray needs to win his third Madrid title in order to remain No. 2 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. Should Murray lose in the final, both he and Roger Federer will have 7,525 ranking points. By rule, the tie is broken with the most total points from Grand Slams, the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, and ATP Masters 1000 mandatory tournaments (not including Monte-Carlo). Federer has 6,180 points in the tiebreaker, while Murray would have 6,120 points with a runner-up finish in Madrid.

The doubles final features defending champions Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea against No. 3 seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau. Bopanna and Mergea saved a match point in the semi-finals and have earned all three of their wins this week in a match tiebreaker. Rojer and Tecau, on the other hand, have not dropped a set yet, including a semi-final win over Indian Wells, Miami and Monte-Carlo champions Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut.

Rojer and Tecau are 4-0 overall against Bopanna and Mergea. In their most recent meetings, Rojer and Tecau won 13-11 in the fifth set of the Wimbledon semi-finals and again in the final of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. Neither team has won a title this season, though countrymen Mergea and Tecau joined forces in their native Romania to capture the Bucharest championship on April 25. Bopanna and Rojer partnered that same week and lost in the Barcelona quarter-finals.

Novak Djokovic secured a spot in the Mutua Madrid Open final for the second time, surviving a late rally from Kei Nishikori to prevail 6-3, 7-6(4).

Djokovic will renew his storied rivalry with Andy Murray on Sunday, with a second title at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event on the line. The Serb, who previously triumphed in 2011 (d. Nadal), has now swept through 14 straight matches against fellow Top 10 players, notching 30 of 31 sets during that stretch.

With the roof open on a rainy Saturday evening in the Spanish capital, the 2011 champion escaped early trouble, coming under pressure in his first three service games. Nishikori looked to play first-strike tennis against the World No. 1, claiming 14 of the first 19 baseline points and registering the first 10 winners of the match. The top-seeded Serb saved three break points (at 0/40) to open proceedings and those missed opportunities would prove to be critical for the Japanese.

At 4-3 deuce, Djokovic whipped a forehand that kicked out of Nishikori’s reach and an unforced error would give the Serb the first break of the match. The top seed closed out the first set a game later after 40 minutes. In total, Djokovic dominated rallies under five shots in the opener, capturing 22 of 31.

Nishikori looked to have the upper hand at the start of the second set, striking a sublime acute-angled drop shot winner to hold for 2-1. The tide looked to be turning with a 0/30 edge in the next game, but Djokovic would shut the door and the World No. 1 converted his third break chance in the fifth game to take the lead for good… or so it seemed.

On the doorstep of victory at 5-4 40/0, Djokovic would see his seemingly insurmountable lead evaporate in a shocking turn of events. All three match points would come and go and Nishikori would save a fourth two points later. Djokovic relinquished his first break of the tournament as Nishikori suddenly reeled off 13 of 18 points, pulling ahead 6-5.

But Djokovic would survive in the ensuing tie-break, converting his fifth match point for the victory after one hour and 59 minutes. He fired 22 winners, including five aces, while taking eight off 11 net points. The Serb won 51 points lasting under five shots, to Nishikori’s 33.

Nishikori, runner-up to Rafael Nadal in Madrid in 2011, was bidding to reach a third consecutive final on the ATP World Tour (Miami & Barcelona). Djokovic took an 8-2 lead in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series and will look to extend his 22-9 mark against Murray, exactly 10 years removed from the very first encounter in the Madrid third round.