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.

It was 10 years ago, on the indoor hard courts of the Madrid Arena, that a pair of 19-year-olds, World No. 17 Novak Djokovic and No. 19 Andy Murray squared off for the first time on the ATP World Tour.

Already friends from their junior days, the Scot and Serb would kick start what would become a burgeoning rivalry. Djokovic rallied from a set down to take that initial encounter in the third round of the 2006 Mutua Madrid Open, and 10 years and 32 meetings later they would clash once again in the Spanish capital. Same match-up, same dramatic battle. Djokovic claimed an unprecedented 29th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crown with a highly-entertaining 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 victory over Murray on Sunday and the top seed reflected on how far they have come.

“Ten years after the result is different, but 10 years later we are the two best players in the world as well,” said Djokovic. “At that time maybe it seemed like something that will be very challenging for us to achieve. But we both thrived to be at the top and we’ve known each other since we were 12. I think you can see already in those junior days that both of us have serious intentions to conquer the tennis world and try to make a serious mark.”

“I’m very pleased that I have developed a great rivalry with somebody that I’ve known for a very long time and somebody that I have a very good and friendly relationship with on and off the court.”

Read: Novak & Andy – The Rivalry

Their strong relationship was never more evident than midway through the third set on Sunday, with Djokovic serving up 4-2 30/30. The eventual champion received a time violation warning, to which Murray interjected, defending his longtime rival: “I was the one keeping him waiting. I made him wait. He was ready five seconds ago.” The act of sportsmanship in such a critical moment revealed their mutual respect for one another. Djokovic was quick to point to that moment.

“It was truly something that is unusual, honestly, to see at the highest levels,” Djokovic added. “I always like to look back at those moments and take that as a highlight rather than only results and rivalries and who wants to beat who more and stuff like this.

“I think it’s nice to see in the midst of this important match that you’re showing your human side and expressing your character values that unfortunately in this sports society are not seen often. I’m glad we have done that and send the right message to many young kids and tennis players.”

Djokovic went on to extend his FedEx ATP Head2Head edge over Murray to 23-9, having claimed 12 of their previous 13 encounters. Another final encounter could be in the cards next week at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome, where they are the top two seeds once again.