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Nadal v Thiem 

One day after defeating Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal could tie his rival’s record by capturing his 30th ATP Masters 1000 championship on Sunday. Nadal bids for his fifth title in eight Mutua Madrid Open finals against first-time ATP Masters 1000 finalist Dominic Thiem. The Spaniard has swept 14 matches and 28 of 30 sets on clay this spring, including titles at Monte-Carlo and Barcelona.

Though he lost to Nadal 6-4, 6-1 in the Barcelona final on April 30, Thiem has defeated him on clay before, rallying from match point down in the 2016 Buenos Aires semi-finals. The 23-year-old saved five match points on Thursday in his third-round win over Grigor Dimitrov. Thiem is attempting to become the first ATP Masters 1000, ATP Finals or Grand Slam champion born after 1988.

The doubles final pits No. 4 seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo against No. 6 seeds Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin. Kubot and Melo are appearing in their third ATP Masters 1000 final of the season after winning the Miami title and finishing as Indian Wells runners-up. Mahut and Roger-Vasselin are 4-0 in finals as a team and playing together for the first time in 2017.

INFOSYS ATP SCORES & STATS

NOTE: Nadal leads Thiem in five categories. Thiem leads Nadal in five categories.

Clay-Court Circuit Continues In Rome: The fifth ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event of the year is in Rome, where 17 of the Top 20 players in the Emirates ATP Rankings will descend. The Internazionali BNL d’Italia first took place in 1930 and has been held every year since 1950. Seven-time champion Rafael Nadal looks for another title in Rome and is joined by fellow former winners Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray. Murray is the top seed, with Djokovic seeded second, Stan Wawrinka third and Nadal fourth.

10 THINGS TO KNOW IN ROME

1) Title Trio: Murray, Djokovic and Nadal return to Rome, where they have combined for the past 12 titles here. Including Roger Federer, the Big Four has won 36 of 39 ATP Masters 1000 titles since 2013 (92%), 74 of 84 since 2008 (88%) and 95 of 111 since 2005 (86%). Nadal would boost those stats by winning Sunday’s Madrid final.

2) Murray to Defend Title: World No. 1 Murray won his first of nine titles in 2016 at Rome, finishing the season on a 61-4 run after arriving at Foro Italico with a 17-5 record. Murray, who turns 30 on Monday, has played the same number of matches entering Rome this year (16-6, 1 title at Dubai).

3) Same Half for Djokovic, Nadal: Djokovic, a four-time Rome champion, is on the same half of the draw as Nadal for the fourth time in as many ATP Masters 1000 appearances this year. His seven-match and 15-set win streaks against the Spaniard ended in the Madrid semi-finals on Saturday.

4) Remarkable Rafa: Nadal, a seven-time Rome champion, enters Sunday’s Madrid final against Dominic Thiem or Pablo Cuevas with a total of 29 ATP Masters 1000 titles, one shy of Djokovic’s all-time record 30. The 30-year-old lefty is 14-0 in matches and 28-2 in sets on clay this season.

5) Former Finalists: Three other former finalists are in the Rome main draw. Tommy Haas, the 2002 runner-up, makes his final appearance in Rome before retiring later this season. World No. 3 Wawrinka, the 2008 runner-up, and former No. 3 David Ferrer, the 2010 runner-up, are also back.

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6) Major Milestones: Ferrer and No. 12 seed Tomas Berdych are on the verge of major milestones. Fifteen years after his ATP debut, Ferrer is one win from 700 for his career. The Spaniard would join the likes of Djokovic and Nadal as the 13th player to reach 700 victories. Berdych is two wins from becoming the 25th player to earn 600 victories. His coach, Goran Ivanisevic, had 599 wins.

7) #NextGenATP Watch: No. 16 seed Alexander Zverev leads the Emirates ATP Race to Milan. Zverev is joined in the main draw this week by 21-year-old Rome native Matteo Berrettini, the top Italian in the Race to Milan. Fiera Milano hosts the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals November 7-11.

8) Wild Cards: Berrettini is one of four Italian wild cards, joining 32-year-old Andreas Seppi and 22-year-olds Gianluca Mager and Stefano Napolitano. Seppi is making his 12th Rome appearance.

9) Doubles Field: Four-time champions Bob Bryan, Mike Bryan and Daniel Nestor headline the doubles draw. The Bryans have not won a final since 2016 Rome (18 events), the longest drought of their 112-title run that began at 2001 Memphis. Nestor won his first Rome title 20 years ago.

10) First-Round Showdowns: Haas, 39, faces Ivo Karlovic, 38, in the oldest ATP match since Luis Ayala, 49, met Ricardo Cano, 30, at 1982 Vina del Mar. Ferrer seeks his 700th win against fellow 35-year-old Spaniard Feliciano Lopez, Berrettini makes his ATP debut against No. 1 Italian Fabio Fognini, Juan Martin del Potro meets No. 10 seed Grigor Dimitrov, and the highest-ranked unseeded players, No. 20 Nick Kyrgios and No. 21 Roberto Bautista Agut, go head to head.

Eighth seed Dominic Thiem reached his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final on Saturday at the Mutua Madrid Open, not facing a break point in defeating Pablo Cuevas in a physical 6-4, 6-4 match that ended after midnight.

“I feel great. It means a lot to play my first final at this level. These tournaments are so strong, so it’s amazing for me to go that far. I’m very happy at the moment,” said Thiem. “I will give everything tomorrow and hope I can play a good final.”

The Austrian will play Rafael Nadal in Sunday’s final after the Spaniard defeated Novak Djokovic earlier in the day. Nadal leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head series with Thiem 3-1, with all four of their matches coming on clay. The four-time Madrid champion dropped just five games in defeating Thiem two weeks ago in the Barcelona final.

“I think he played a very good match in Barcelona. I played well also. If I’m at my best and he’s at his best on clay, he’s probably the better player. If you see his records on this surface, it’s just amazing,” said Thiem. “But tomorrow is a new day. I will try to improve the things I didn’t do that good in Barcelona and then we will see what happens.”

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Thiem evens his FedEx ATP Head2Head series with Cuevas at 1-1, gaining revenge over a loss at Roland Garros in 2015. The 23-year-old Austrian had gone 0-4 in his previous Masters 1000 quarter-finals prior to this week, but broke the streak on Friday against lucky loser and #NextGenATP Croatian Borna Coric.

Thiem has continued to excel on clay in 2017, winning the title this February in Rio de Janeiro (d. Carreno Busta) and finishing runner-up two weeks ago in Barcelona (l. Nadal). He improves to 14-2 this season on the red dirt. In addition to scoring his first victory over a World No. 1 against Andy Murray in the Barcelona semi-finals, he staged a miraculous comeback in Madrid by saving five match points to defeat 12^th seed Grigor Dimitrov in their third-round battle.

Despite the loss, Cuevas can be pleased with reaching his first Masters 1000 semi-final. The 31-year-old Uruguayan won four consecutive three-set matches to make the final four. Cuevas also picked up the biggest win of his career by defeating Stan Wawrinka en route to a quarter-final finish in Monte-Carlo.

Thiem and Cuevas could face off again in the second round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia. Cuevas opens up against a qualifier or lucky loser, while Thiem has an opening-round bye.

Although Cuevas stayed close in the scoreline throughout the first set with Thiem, the eighth seed comfortably held serve while Cuevas was often forced to deuce or saving break points. Thiem grabbed the lone break of the opening set at 2-2 with an overhead winner and maintained his slight lead to take the early advantage.

Both players remained even early in the second set, but Thiem played 15 points in his first three service games while Cuevas played 33. The long week caught up to Cuevas at 4-4 and he dropped serve after being unable to dig up a low approach from the Austrian. Thiem easily held in the next game to wrap up the match in one hour and 23 minutes.