Andy Murray announced today that he has parted company with his coach Amelie Mauresmo.

Murray, who had worked with Mauresmo since June 2014, said, “She’s been a calming influence in the team and we will all miss having her around. I’ll take some time to consider the next steps and how we progress from here, but I’d like to thank her for everything she has done. She’s been an invaluable member of the team.”

The announcement comes a day after the 28 year old lost to World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the final of the Mutua Madrid Open, where Jamie Delgado was in his corner. Delgado was brought in by Murray to support Mauresmo, who gave birth to a boy in August 2015, after this year’s Australian Open.

“Working with Andy over the past two years has been a fantastic experience for me,” said Mauresmo. “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed being part of the great team of people he has around him. Dedicating enough time along with the travel has been a challenge for me. I wish him and team well and I hope he goes on to win many more titles.”

Since teaming up on 8 June 2014, Murray has gone 7-5 in tour-level finals. In that time, he reached No. 2 in the Emirates ATP Rankings and was runner-up in the 2015 and 2016 Australian Open finals (l. to Djokovic both times).

Former WTA World No. 1 Mauresmo won the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2006.

Murray has been previously coached by Leon Smith (1998–2004), Pato Alvarez (2003–2005), Mark Petchey (2005–2006), Brad Gilbert (2006–2007), Miles MacLagan (2007–2010), Alex Corretja (2010–2011), Ivan Lendl (2011–2014) and Jonas Bjorkman (2015). Murray won the 2012 London Olympics gold medal, 2012 US Open and 2013 Wimbledon titles with Lendl.

Tenth seed Milos Raonic saved nine of 11 break point opportunities to beat Marco Cecchinato 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in two hours and 9 minutes for a place in the Internazionali BNL d’Italia second round. Raonic also beat the Italian wild card at last month’s Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters.

“I thought he played better today [than in Monte-Carlo],” said Raonic. “The conditions were a little bit difficult. I should have been a little bit more disciplined with myself in certain scenarios, but I’m happy to win and give myself an opportunity to play better in my next round.”

Raonic goes onto face Nick Kyrgios, who recorded his first win at the Foro Italico, with 10 aces in a 6-1, 6-2 victory over wild card Salvatore Caruso in 61 minutes.

“I’m confident going forward, but at the same time Raonic’s got one of the best serves in the world,” said Kyrgios. “If he’s having a lights-out day when he does everything, you can’t really do too much. I’m going to go out there and do what I have been doing and just compete. If I happen to win, I win.”

Looking ahead to the Kyrgios clash, Raonic said, “He has a lot of firepower. He can do a lot of different things. It’s about sort of getting ahead in the points before he does, because that’s where I’d say both of our games excel at is that aggressive tennis. It’s about who can take control of the points first.”

Richard Gasquet, the No. 11 seed and 2011 semi-finalist, got the better of Julien Benneteau for the fourth time in a 6-3, 6-0 win over 74 minutes. He will next face Andreas Seppi, who edged Vasek Pospisil 7-6(5), 7-6(2).

Elsewhere, Jack Sock will challenge No. 12 seed David Goffin after beating Guido Pella 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 in two hours and 40 minutes.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was forced to withdraw from the tournament due to an adductor injury. “I just stretched my adductor this morning,” explained the Frenchman. “I was sick when I left Madrid for two days, and I came here and I tried to play a little bit to see how it goes, and this morning I just stretched a little bit my adductor. So I will take rest and recover for the next step. I hope it’s going to be all right.”

Novak Djokovic has come back from 0/40 on serve to hold just 15 per cent of the time this season leading into the Mutua Madrid Open.

Crunch time against Andy Murray in the Madrid final came right at the finish line, with Djokovic impressively escaping a 0/40 hole whilst serving at 5-3 in the third set to claim a record 29th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title.

Djokovic miraculously saved seven break points in the 13-minute, 40-second game, which spanned six deuces of pulsating action before finally triumphing 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.

Performance on break points was a strength of the Serb all week, as he was only broken once for the tournament in the semi-finals against Kei Nishikori.

Djokovic consistently elevated his game down break point in the earlier rounds, pushing harder in the important moments to pressure critical errors from his opponents.

Through to the final, Djokovic’s average first serve speed for the tournament was 182 km/h (113 mph) , but that ramped up to 191 km/h (119 mph) when down break point. And just for good measure, he made a first serve on all nine of those break points.

That form initially held true against Murray, with Djokovic making a first serve facing his first break point, leading 6-2, 1-2, 30/40. Murray eventually missed a forehand approach long, and then Djokovic’s form guide on big points was thrown out the window.

Djokovic was broken on the next point when he double faulted. The only other time Djokovic was broken for the match, leading 2-0, 30/40 in the third set, he double faulted again.

Set 1: Spreading the Court

Djokovic won a massive 80 per cent (20/25) of the baseline exchanges in the opening set, owning the directional battle wide on both sides of the court. The Serb directed 47 per cent of his shots in the opening set wide through the Ad court, 48 per cent wide in the Deuce court, and only three shots (five per cent) were directed to the the middle third of court.

This enabled Djokovic to notch up five forehand winners and four backhand winners, while Murray failed to register a single groundstroke winner. Once a rally matured past four shots, Djokovic won a staggering 82 per cent (14/17), including 90 per cent (9/10) in the rally length between five and nine shots. Murray was constantly on defense, running 516 metres in the set to Djokovic’s 488 metres.

Set 2: Depth is the Diamond

Murray turned things around early in the second set, winning five of the first six baseline exchanges in the opening two games.

In the first set, Murray was only able to get 22 per cent of his shots to land closer to the baseline than the service line, mainly due to Djokovic’s superior court position and placement.

Murray built a 4-1 lead in the second set by improving his depth, making a substantially higher 42 per cent of his shots land closer to the baseline than the service line.

Murray’s second serve performance also drastically improved. He only won 17 per cent in this key area in the first set, but greatly elevated that number to 60 per cent in the second set.

Murray’s average second serve speed in the 2015 season was only 141 km/h (88 mph), but it was a substantially higher 155 km/h (96mph) this year in Madrid. In the second set, Murray ramped it up even more to average 159 km/h (99 mph).

Rally Length

It’s interesting to note that a classic clay-court battle between two of the world’s best groundstroke maestros still produced more short points than long ones. More than half of all points (52 per cent) were contested in the 0-4 shot range. Twenty nine per cent were in the 5-9 shot range, and just 19 per cent were longer than nine shots.

Our eyes are naturally drawn to the drama of the longer points, but the top two players in the world wrestle far more over points containing a maximum of just two shots each.

There are 12 singles matches on Monday’s schedule at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia with No. 10 seed Milos Raonic, No. 11 Richard Gasquet, No. 13 Dominic Thiem and No. 14 Gael Monfils leading the way. In addition, five Italians, including the top two of Fabio Fognini and Andreas Seppi, are in action.

Leading off on Center Court is Raonic against wild card Marco Cecchinato in a second-time meeting. Last month, Raonic won 63 75 in the first round at ATP Masters 1000 Monte-Carlo. The 25-year-old Canadian is the only player this season to reach the quarter-finals or better in all four ATP Masters 1000 tournaments. He is off to a 23-5 start this season and back in the Top 10 Emirates ATP Rankings for the second week in a row for the first time since last October. The No. 119th-ranked Cecchinato is facing his first Top 10 opponent in his career.

In the third match on, Fognini brings a 4-2 career record (3-1 on clay) against Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Fognini is making his ninth tournament appearance (5-8 record) and his best result is the 3R last year. Garcia-Lopez looks to even his season match record (12-13). His best showing in Rome is also the 3R in 2010 and last year.

In the evening session, Next Generation teenage star Alexander Zverev and Grigor Dimitrov square off for the third time (tied 1-1), the first on clay. Zverev won the last meeting in the 2R at ATP Masters 1000 Indian Wells in March. The 19-year-old German, who is making his Rome debut, enters with a 16-11 match record on the season. Dimitrov, a semi-finalist in Rome two years ago, is ranked No. 35 this week, the first time he’s been out of the Top 30 Emirates ATP Rankings since Aug. 5, 2013 at No. 31.

On Grandstand, Frenchmen Gasquet and Julien Benneteau meet for the fourth time on the ATP World Tour, the first on clay. Gasquet won all three previous meetings, winning six of seven sets. In the next match on, another Next Generation member, 21-year-old Nick Kyrgios, takes on wild card Salvatore Caruso, who is playing in his first career ATP World Tour main draw. Kyrgios has reached the quarter-finals or better in five of seven tournaments this season and he is looking for his 20th match win of the year (19-6). In the final match on is Thomaz Bellucci and Monfils, who owns a 3-0 record against the Brazilian. Monfils has rallied to win their last two meetings after dropping the opening set. Monfils, a semi-finalist in Rome in his 2006 debut, is playing here for the first time since 2012.

On Pietrangeli, the third match on features Seppi and Canadian No. 2 Vasek Pospisil. They have split their previous four hard court meetings. Seppi is playing in his first tournament since ATP Masters 1000 Miami in March. In the next match on, No. 1 Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov and Thiem meet for the third time (tied 1-1), the first on clay. The 22-year-old Thiem is aiming for his 30^th match win of the season (29-9). Last year he didn’t win his 30^th match until the 1R at the US Open in late August.