SEMI-FINAL PREVIEW: No. 5 seed Rafael Nadal and No. 2 seed Andy Murray will meet on Saturday in a rematch of the 2015 Mutua Madrid Open final and for a spot in the 2016 final. Nadal is on a 13-match winning streak, coming off consecutive clay-court titles at ATP Masters 1000 Monte-Carlo and Barcelona. He is also 7-1 on clay and 17-6 overall against Murray, including a three-set win in Monte-Carlo on April 16. Nadal’s lone clay-court loss to Murray came at the Caja Mágica one year ago, when the Brit was not broken in his 63 62 championship victory.

Murray needs to win his third Madrid title this week in order to remain No. 2 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. Should Nadal capture his fifth Madrid championship, he would pass Guillermo Vilas with an Open Era-record 50th title on clay and Novak Djokovic with a record 29th ATP Masters 1000 title. Djokovic, however, is still in the hunt for his second Madrid crown, which would break his ATP Masters 1000 title tie with Nadal. The World No. 1 is on a six-match winning streak against his semi-final opponent on Saturday, 2014 Madrid finalist Kei Nishikori. Djokovic has also swept 13 straight matches against other Top 10 players, claiming 29 of 30 sets during that stretch.

In the doubles semi-finals, Nicolas Mahut and Marcelo Melo continue their race for No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings. If Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert defeat Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau, then Melo and Ivan Dodig lose to Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea, Mahut will become the 49th doubles No. 1 on Monday. If the Frenchmen fall on Saturday, Melo will reclaim the No. 1 ranking even if he and Dodig are defeated by the defending champions Bopanna and Mergea. If Mahut and Herbert meet Melo and Dodig for the title on Sunday, the winner will be No. 1.

Mahut and Herbert are on a 15-match winning streak with ATP Masters 1000 titles at Indian Wells, Miami and Monte-Carlo. They are bidding to become the first doubles team or singles player to sweep the first four ATP Masters 1000 tournaments in a calendar year. Individually, Mahut is on a 19-match winning streak that includes his Rotterdam championship alongside Vasek Pospisil.

A dominant Novak Djokovic improved to 7-0 in his FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry against Milos Raonic with a 6-3, 6-4 quarter-final victory at the Mutua Madrid Open on Friday.

The Serb remains on track to win a record-breaking 29th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title and will face Kei Nishikori on Saturday. Djokovic has won his past 13 matches against Top 10 players and has only dropped one of 30 sets in that span.

“One of the keys of the match was getting as many returns back in play as possible,” Djokovic said. “I knew that before I stepped on the court that I should not give him too many free points on his serve. That’s where the big servers get a lot of confidence.

“I returned exceptionally well. Every single player, especially big servers, have their patterns when it’s close. But sometimes it’s just instinct. It’s just anticipation, trying to be in the right balance and looking at the toss.”

Raonic, who was broken in his first three matches, only missed three first serves (18/21) in the first set. However, Djokovic neutralised Raonic’s power and converted on the only break point of the opening set to improve to 16-1 in sets against the towering Canadian.

The top-ranked player in the Emirates ATP Rankings reasserted his control over the match early in the second set, breaking Raonic for a second time after the changeover. Raonic raised his level and held three break points as Djokovic served for the match at 5-4 in the second set, but ultimately succumbed in one hour and 44 minutes.

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are on a quarter-final collision course at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, set to begin on Sunday in Rome.

Between them, Djokovic and Nadal have won the past 11 editions of this ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament, held at the Foro Italico. Since 2005, Nadal has lifted the trophy seven times, with Djokovic winning the trophy the past two years to add to his successes in 2008 and 2011.

View Rome Draw

In what is arguably the toughest quarter of the draw, the 28-year-old Djokovic will open his campaign against a qualifier and in the third round could face 14^th seed Gael Monfils, who has made a career-best start to the season. Nadal is set to meet either Munich champion Philipp Kohlschreiber or a qualifier in his first match and then could come up against 10^th seed Milos Raonic or Nick Kyrgios.

Third seed Roger Federer is also slated in the top half of the draw as the Swiss looks to make a successful return to action after being forced out of Madrid with a back injury. The 34-year-old Federer is looking to claim the elusive Rome crown, having finished runner-up four times, most recently last year against Djokovic.

Federer faces a tough opening test against either Grigor Dimitrov or Next Generation star Alexander Zverev. Possible third-round opponents for Federer include Dominic Thiem, winner of 29 matches thus far in 2016, or Joao Sousa, who gave Nadal a stern test in the Madrid quarter-finals on Friday.

Sixth seed Kei Nishikori rounds out the top half of the draw. The Japanese, who is through to the Madrid semi-finals this weekend, is set to face Teymuraz Gabashvili or Viktor Troicki in the second round before a potential clash with 11^th seed Richard Gasquet.

Second seed Andy Murray headlines the bottom half of the draw. The Scot is still in contention in Madrid, where he faces Nadal in the semi-finals on Saturday in the hopes of winning his first title of the season this week. Murray defeated Tomas Berdych in the quarter-finals on Friday and is again pitted in the same quarter as the Czech in Rome.

But first, Murray will open against either Next Generation star Borna Coric or a qualifier, before the possibility of Roberto Bautista Agut in the third round. Berdych begins against Albert Ramos-Vinolas or Sam Querrey and could meet Jack Sock or David Goffin in the third round.

Reigning Roland Garros champion Stan Wawrinka is looking to find his form after early exits in Monte-Carlo and Madrid. The fourth-seeded Swiss, who reached the Rome final in 2008 (l. to Djokovic), faces Benoit Paire or Bernard Tomic after a first-round bye and is seeded to meet No. 16 Kevin Anderson in the third round, though the South African opens against Feliciano Lopez.

No. 7 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and No. 9 David Ferrer are potential quarter-final opponents for Wawrinka. 

Third seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau reached the semi-finals of the Mutua Madrid Open as they edged seventh seeds Alexander Peya and Nenad Zimonjic 7-6(5), 7-6(2) on Friday at the Caja Magica.

Watch live doubles matches online at TennisTV.com

“It was an extremely difficult match with different conditions as we played with the roof closed,” said Rojer. “But we managed to play some good points in the crucial moments in the tie-breaks and that was the difference.”

After three successive opening-round losses together, Rojer and Tecau are through to their first semi-final since February in Rotterdam. They are bidding to reach their first final since lifting the trophy at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London at the end of 2015.

Standing in the way of the Dutch/Romanian duo is the hottest doubles team of 2016. Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut are two wins away from a historic feat after rallying to down Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan 3-6, 7-6(4), 10-8 to reach the final four.

Herbert/Mahut, now 17-2 on the year, have swept the first three ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events of 2016 – the BNP Paribas Open (d. Pospisil/Sock), the Miami Open presented by Itau (d. Klaasen/Ram) and the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters (d. Murray/Soares). No doubles team has won the first four ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events in the same year.

Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo teamed to eliminate Vasek Pospisil and Jack Sock 6-3, 6-4 in the quarter-finals. Melo and Mahut are in contention to take over the top position in the Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings from Jamie Murray. Melo is guaranteed to reclaim top spot from Murray, who displaced the Brazilian almost five weeks ago, if Mahut does not advance to the final.

After 10 years as a professional, John Millman has seen plenty of things on tour that he can only shake his head and laugh about now.

“I was at a Futures tournament in Korea in 2012 and watching a doubles match. We hear this motorbike coming all of a sudden and a pizza delivery guy gets out. He then walked on court and tried to deliver the pizza to the guy getting ready to return serve,” laughed Millman. “It was so funny, but it also makes you appreciate it more when you move to up to the higher-tier tournaments.”

Since then, Millman’s memories of Korea have come from his results on the court. At this week’s $100,000 ATP Challenger Tour event in Busan, he comes in as the No. 2 seed and has made his way through a potentially tricky draw with flying colours. In his quarter-final match on Friday against Liam Broady, Millman recorded a dominant double bagel victory that saw him drop just seven points in the second set.

Having reached the finals in Busan in 2012 and won two Futures events in Korea in 2014, Millman said he looks forward to playing here when he gets the chance.

“I play really well in Korea and Asia in general,” said Millman. “The Challengers here are well-run, it’s not too far away from Australia and the conditions are usually similar. Everyone is very nice to me, so it’s a real treat to play here.”

After an outstanding 2015 season on the ATP Challenger Tour that saw him win three singles titles and finish as runner-up in two other events, Millman has played exclusively on the ATP World Tour this year. Despite having solid results in 2016, he believes it’s important for him to occasionally play Challengers with the goal of making deep runs.

“I don’t think the level on the ATP Challenger Tour is that different from the level on the ATP World Tour,” he explained. “Men’s tennis is so strong these days and there are so many good players. This tournament is a great example of that because there aren’t any easy matches. I had to beat Austin Krajicek and Sergiy Stakhovsky just to get to the quarter-finals and they’ve both been in the Top 100.”

After advancing to the third round of this year’s Australian Open, Millman said he’s now setting his sights on reaching the second week of a Grand Slam. Having already moved through three matches this week in Busan, he’s confident he can do the same at Roland Garros.

“I’m just trying to get as many matches as I can now,” said Millman. “I’m very confident in my game and confident that all of these tournaments are the right preparation to lead me towards that.”

Rafael Nadal set a blockbuster semi-final clash with Andy Murray at the Mutua Madrid Open after battling past Joao Sousa 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 on Friday at the Caja Magica.

The stage is set for a rematch of last year’s final, which saw Murray capture his first clay-court ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crown after beating Nadal. Since that loss, Nadal has won his past two meetings with Murray, at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals and three weeks ago in the semi-finals of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters.

The 29-year-old Nadal improved to a 13-match winning streak after edging Sousa in a match watched by Real Madrid footballing star, Cristiano Ronaldo.

It took Sousa 37 minutes to register his first game of the match, levelling at 1-1 in the second set, but the Portuguese’s respite was short lived as Nadal looked set to make a decisive move when he engineered break points in the sixth game.

However, as the rain began to fall more heavily in Madrid, a 10-minute delay ensued as the roof was closed on Manolo Santana court and it was Sousa who emerged stronger. The Portuguese saved the three break points he faced in the sixth game, halting Nadal’s momentum, and then took his chance in the 10^th game, breaking Nadal to 15 to snatch the second set.

Sousa stayed close with Nadal in the early stages of the third set, but the Spaniard regained the initiative in the eighth game, breaking Sousa before serving out the match in two hours and five minutes.

Nadal came into Madrid on the back of victories in Monte-Carlo (d. Monfils) and Barcelona (d. Nishikori). This week, he is looking to claim an Open Era record 50^th clay-court crown and also his 29^th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 trophy.

The Mallorcan is a four-time former champion in Madrid, winning the title once when the event was held on indoor hard court, in 2005 (d. Ljubicic), and three times since the move to clay, in 2010 (d. Federer), 2013 (d. Wawrinka) and 2014 (d. Nishikori).

Benjamin Becker shares the last time…

I missed a flight?
Well, I’m German so I actually value punctuality, but I missed one flight. I remember, (it) was many, many years ago, coming to Houston (late) because of a traffic jam in Miami. I missed the flight by maybe two minutes, and they wouldn’t let me on but I got lucky because I knew a guy that I met there by accident at the airport who worked for the airline, and he got me on the next plane. So it worked out OK.

I lost something important?
Last time I lost something important was when my wallet got stolen in Germany. For me, traveling all over the world and being in many places where you maybe have to be careful of it, my wallet got stolen at a tennis club in Germany, where I had left for 10 seconds and had my wallet in my bag and somebody stole it out of my bag… I left my bag, I actually just went to the restroom. I heard somebody come in but I didn’t think about it. And really, it was just 15 seconds, 20 seconds. I came out and the bag was gone and I ran outside and I didn’t see anybody, so that was it… They must have searched it real quick and just found the right spot.

I paid money to rent a tennis court or buy tennis balls?
Balls, I just bought a few weeks ago in Dallas, just to get some balls to prepare for [Houston]. And court, I’m lucky that I’m able to play in Dallas at a Lifetime Club. I’m able to practise there, and they help me out nicely. They are very nice people. But I rented some courts in Florida… I went to a public park and everybody had to pay so you pay three bucks an hour. So usually I paid six bucks for two hours and then I practised there… It was when I still lived in Florida and I moved two years ago. I lived there for five years and I usually played at that park because it was five minutes from my house… hard courts… Fort Lauderdale. It was George English Park… Everybody had to pay and I didn’t mind paying… Six bucks, not bad, and if I wanted to play three hours they let me play an hour longer… I could play as long as I wanted, unless somebody else came in. I actually had to wait for the court a few times because the courts were full, so I waited an hour or two and then I got my court.

Being famous helped me?
I don’t know, I’m not that famous. I have to think about that one. I remember after I beat (Andre) Agassi I went to, which also was a long time ago, I went to a New York restaurant, and I had my former college coach, some college friends, my coach at the time, my girlfriend at the time… and obviously I had to pay for dinner. It was after I lost to (Andy) Roddick so we all went out to dinner, and I said “Hey, OK, I cover the dinner, no problem, guys. I invite you, you guys came to New York to support me.” And then when I paid, I gave them my credit card, the guy came back and apologised and said, “I didn’t know it’s you, you beat Agassi a few days before, obviously you don’t have to pay.” So until today those guys still say I owe them a dinner, which I say, “No, I paid, just a different way!”

I strung a tennis racquet?
I’ve only strung a tennis racquet once in my life to test it and that was maybe 10 years ago, and I gave up. So I’ve never actually done it in my life… I mean I did do it once but I didn’t play with the racquet. It was way too loose and it was just to test it.

I cooked for myself and others?
I sometimes cook breakfast. So I cook for my kids sometimes. I do an omelette in the morning, if you consider that cooking. I did some pancakes once. The real cooking, which is also maybe not gourmet cooking, but in college (Baylor University) I always cooked for myself… You didn’t want to go out to eat, you tried to save money, obviously. So we never really did anything outside then, just cooking at home and eating there. We went with the team somewhere we went out to dinner… Usually (at college) I always cooked for myself every day, lunch and dinner. But nothing special, usually pasta, chicken, some vegetables, so nothing fancy, also some pancakes. My grandmother gave me the recipe, and that’s pretty much it… Every now and then I do pancakes or omelettes in the morning for my kids and my wife just to do something extra.

I met a childhood idol?
One of my childhood idols was Boris Becker (no relation), and I met him in 2007, during Davis Cup, my first Davis Cup tie… On Saturday after the doubles he walked into the locker room and it was just like you didn’t breathe for a minute… That was a big moment for me, to actually meet somebody you looked up to most of your life, all of your life… He was the reason why I started to play tennis… Coming to college, I followed (fellow German and Dallas Maverick) Dirk Nowitzki very closely. I went to the games every semester whenever I could. I met him also a few years back, and it was also a good thing for me.

I shared a hotel room with another player?
I hadn’t done it in a long time but in Miami I shared a hotel room with (compatriot Philipp) Petzschner… Before that I don’t think I shared a room with somebody for a long, long time… We went to Dallas together and then he didn’t book a hotel at the time. I said I have a hotel room, and I sai, “Hey, why don’t we share the hotel room. His doubles partner was staying in private housing. We’re good friends… We don’t spend that much time in the hotel but we go practice, we come back, we go to dinner, we come back. We like to watch basketball, and there was a lot of basketball on TV. So we just shared a room. It was good fun, actually.

I asked someone famous for an autograph or selfie?
Selfie? I don’t think I’ve done a selfie. But I just took a picture with Dirk Nowitzki a few weeks back in Memphis. Autograph… the one person that I asked for an autograph and he gave it to me was Wayne Gretzky. I got to stay at his house for four or five days during a college tournament in… 2004. He actually signed a poster… and he gave me a DVD, the heights of his career… It was a great experience… It was a college tournament, and they also offered private housing. Our assistant coach knew his private coach… It was pretty incredible to have five days with him. See him in the morning, him having a coffee, we eating the Wheaties while he’s on the box of the Wheaties! It was kind of surreal but unbelievable guy, so nice. He came to watch us practise, warm up for the matches, everything. Really humble. Very, very nice guy and family, five kids. Very, very fun.