Pablo Cuevas and Marcel Granollers were solid on serve on Monday to get the better of Juan Martin del Potro and Dominic Thiem 6-3, 7-6(8) in 87 minutes at the Mutua Madrid Open.

Cuevas and Granollers won the first three games of the match, then, towards the end of a competitive second set, won the first four points of the tie-break. Del Potro and Thiem recovered to lead 5/4 and, having saved one match point at 5/6, could not convert one set point of their own at 7/6 as del Potro returned a backhand long.

Cuevas sealed victory with an unreturned served for a place in the second round against top seeds and defending champions Lukas Kubot and Marcelo Melo.

In the other only doubles match on day two, Dutch pair Robin Haase and Jean-Julien Rojer knocked out Santiago Gonzalez and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi 7-5, 6-3 in 74 minutes. They now face fifth seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares.

Did You Know?
In the first 13 editions of the Mutua Madrid Open (2002-2014), only three winning doubles teams did not feature Daniel Nestor, Bob Bryan or Mike Bryan. Nestor won three of the first four championship matches in Madrid alongside Mark Knowles and also triumphed with Nenad Zimonjic in 2009 and 2014, while Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan won the event on five occasions between 2006 and 2013.

Rafael Nadal may be 19 matches (and 46 sets) unbeaten on his favourite surface, but even one of the sport’s greatest icons isn’t leaving anything to chance in his preparations for the Mutua Madrid Open, where he is a five-time champion.

“I think that I go through a process of adaptation,” said Nadal on Monday. “I have played a couple of tournaments before where I have played really well. In Monte-Carlo and Barcelona, you have the feeling that you are in control of the situation. Here, it’s different. It takes you time to adapt to how the ball bounces and flies.

“Day by day I keep improving. I have better feelings. I’m happy to be back here. It’s always special to play at home. It’s a very, very special moment, a very special occasion for me to be able to play here.”

The 31-year-old superstar, who has sunk his teeth into five titles from nine Mutua Madrid Open finals, arrived early in the Spanish capital to acclimatise in training sessions with Dominic Thiem, who he beat in last year’s championship match, Grigor Dimitrov and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

Nadal has already picked up 11th titles at both the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters (d. Nishikori) and the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell (d. Tsitsipas), where he also passed 400 match wins on clay courts. With a 401-35 lifetime record on the surface (.920), according to the FedEx ATP Performance Zone, the best winning percentage of any player in ATP World Tour history, Nadal remains humble of his achievements.

“I don’t think that I am superior to the other players [on clay],” said Nadal. “Maybe some tournaments have been better than others, but that doesn’t guarantee that in the future I’m going to be better than my opponents.

“I’m very happy for all the things that have happened… I’m not worried about being the favourite player or not. I try to do things the best possible way, to be in shape. When I’m able to do this, well, it’s all fine. The day I’m not going to be worried about my shape or about my tennis, that will be the day when I won’t be successful any more.

“I just have to be ready in every single moment [and] be patient. That’s what I’ve done. I’ve always been very respectful of my opponents because each day it’s completely different when you go out there and play on a tennis court. You have to bear in mind that you can either win or lose.”

In the 10th year of play at the Caja Magica, the 31-year-old will be hoping to draw inspiration from the fantastic atmosphere in his first match against France’s Gael Monfils or Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia.

“The crowd is always great. Every year that I’ve played here, I play with the full court with the crowd supporting. The crowd here is special… We had a great event in indoor, [conditions] too, before. But, at the same time, this event is even bigger than what used to be in indoor. The tournament is a great event and hopefully will stay here for a long time.”

No. 48 Joao Sousa, +20
It had long been a dream of Joao Sousa’s: become the first Portugese-born player to win an ATP World Tour title on home soil. And with the crowd’s help on Sunday, Sousa achieved the milestone to win his third ATP World Tour title and first since 2015 Valencia.

He also climbed closer to his career-high ATP Ranking of No. 28, which he reached in May 2016. The right-hander jumped 20 spots to No. 48 and could come close this season to breaking the Top 30 again. Before Estoril, Sousa had reached a semi-final (Marrakech) and beaten two Top 10 players at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments (No. 9 Goffin, Miami; No. 5 Zverev, Indian Wells).

No. 28 Philipp Kohlschreiber, +6
The 34-year-old German veteran climbed back into the Top 30 of the ATP Rankings by reaching the final of the BMW Open by FWU in Munich. Kohlschreiber hadn’t dropped a set before falling to Alexander Zverev, who retained his Munich crown. It was Kohlschreiber’s first final of the season.

No. 40 Stefanos Tsitsipas, +4
In Estoril, the #NextGenATP Greek continued his accelerated pace on the red dirt by making the semi-finals (l. to Sousa) and setting a new career-high in the ATP Rankings. It marked the second consecutive week that the 19-year-old had reached a semi-final and beaten a Top 10 player (d. No. 8 Anderson). In Barcelona, Tsitsipas swept No. 7 Dominic Thiem in the quarter-finals before falling to No. 1 Rafael Nadal in the final.

Tsitsipas currently leads the ATP Race To Milan, which will determine seven of the eight players who compete at the 21-and-under Next Gen ATP Finals, to be held 6-10 November in Milan.

No. 56 Frances Tiafoe, +8
The #NextGenATP American, like Tsitsipas, is having the breakout season of his career. Two months after winning his maiden ATP World Tour title in Delray Beach, Tiafoe made his second tour-level final in Estoril (l. to Sousa). Next for Tiafoe, who matched his career-high of No. 56: cracking the Top 50. The right-hander is currently in second place in the ATP Race To Milan.

See Who’s Trailing Tsitsipas, Tiafoe In The ATP Race To Milan

No. 82 Taro Daniel, +32
The Japanese right-hander hadn’t reached a semi-final before last week in Istanbul, but on Sunday evening, he was celebrating his maiden ATP World Tour title and a new career-high ATP Ranking after beating Malek Jaziri to win the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open.

Daniel, who won four tour-level matches in all of 2017, won five matches in a row in Istanbul, knocking out Italian Matteo Berrettini, Aljaz Bedene of Slovakia, Brazil’s Rogerio Dutra Silva and French veteran Jeremy Chardy before beating Jaziri, who was also competing in his first ATP World Tour final.