#NextGenATP Briton Jack Draper earned the second ATP Masters 1000 win of his season and career on Sunday at the Mutua Madrid Open. The 20-year-old wild card was a 6-4, 6-3 winner over World No. 27 Italian Lorenzo Sonego.

Draper dropped serve just once in the Madrid opening-round match, but it came at a crucial time as he served for the first set. After missing out on a set point, he bounced back to break for the set. The Briton again faced a break point as he served out the match, but was able to close it out for the straight-sets victory.

The World No. 124 has won four ATP Challenger Tour events in a strong start to the 2022 season, and defeated Gilles Simon at the Miami Open presented by Itau in March. He next faces sixth seed Andrey Rublev.

Daniel Evans joined his countryman in the second round after a 6-3, 6-4 win over Federico Delbonis as he looks to kickstart his clay swing.

“I think all of it was pretty good,” Evans said of his performance against the Argentine, who reached the last 16 as a qualifier last year in Madrid. “I played pretty well throughout the match. I served well, I mixed it up well.

“I’ve played well this year on clay,” he added, “just haven’t got my head in front really.”

New Conversion and Steal Insights from Tennis Data Innovations reveal how Evans won the match despite Delbonis being the more aggressive player. The left hander won the Balance of Power decisively, hitting from an attacking position 31 per cent of the time to Evans’ 20 per cent.

But the Brit was much better at converting from attacking positions, boasting a Conversion score of 82 per cent. In contrast, Delbonis won just 61 per cent of points when he worked his way into offense.

Evans also enjoyed an emphatic edge over Delbonis in the new Steal score metric, winning an impressive 39 per cent of points in which he found himself in a defensive position, handily above the clay average of 35 per cent.

Learn more about Conversion & Steal scores

In the only other main-draw singles match on Sunday, John Isner defeated Filip Krajinovic, 7-6(8), 6-4.

In Madrid doubles action, Carlos Alcaraz teamed with Marc Lopez for a 4-6, 7-6(2), 10-4 win in what was the youngster’s Madrid doubles debut. Another Spanish pairing — Pablo Carreno Busta and Pedro Martinez — also advanced via a Match Tie-break, beating Rohan Bopanna and Denis Shapovalov, 6-7(6), 6-3, 10-1.

Novak Djokovic, the top seed this week at the Mutua Madrid Open, has been eager for competitive match play as he ramps up his activity on the ATP Tour. He got that and more in Belgrade, where he played four three-setters in a runner-up finish at his hometown Serbia Open. 

Though he lost to Andrey Rublev in a three-set final — “running out of gas”, as he described it — Djokovic left the ATP 250 event happy with his performance.

“I was looking to spend more time on the court, and that’s what I got. So of course playing finals is a good result and I have to be positive about it,” he said in a Madrid pre-tournament presser.

“I like a lot of things about the way I was hitting the ball. Of course it’s not at the level still where I wish it to be. It is a process, and I have to be patient. Hopefully things will progress in the right direction also this week.”

While Djokovic attributes the gaps in his game to his lack of match play, he feels his fitness struggles are due to lingering effects from an illness he had prior to Monte Carlo.

“But [it was] different in Belgrade than it was in Monaco,” he explained of his fitness level. “Knowing that I played four almost-three-hour matches and long, three-set battles gives me enough reason to believe that it’s headed in the right direction.

“I had a very good week of training now, put more emphasis on fitness and building the stamina and endurance, because that’s what’s going to be necessary in order to compete with top guys on the slowest and physically most demanding surface in our sport.”

Djokovic will open his Madrid campaign against Gael Monfils or Spanish wild card Carlos Gimeno Valero. His last-16 matchup promises to be an enticing one against one of Dominic Thiem, Andy Murray, Denis Shapovalov and Ugo Humbert.

Sebastian Baez capped a dream week at the Millennium Estoril Open with one of his most dominant performances of the tournament to claim his first ATP Tour title. Playing in his second tour-level final, the 21-year-old defeated Frances Tiafoe, 6-3, 6-2, in the championship match. 

The Argentine collapsed to the court in celebration as he capped the week of his life by winning the last five games of the final. During the trophy ceremony, he shared his thoughts during that moment: “A lot things, a lot of words,” he said, “but I think we best words were ‘so proud’.”

Baez’s victory caps a banner day for young stars on the ATP Tour following #NextGenATP Dane Holger Rune’s maiden tour-level title in Munich earlier on Sunday. The Argentine was a semi-finalist at the 2021 Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals, but just misses the cutoff for eligibility this year due to turning 22 on 28 December.  

After entering the week at a career-high ATP Ranking of No. 59, Baez is projected to rise into the top 40 on Monday.

In the Estoril final, Baez dropped the first two games of the match and saved three break points to avoid going down 0-3. But after holding serve in a six-deuce game — the longest of the one-hour, 14-minute contest — he sprinted to a 5-2 lead before closing out the opening set with ease. It was a similar story in set two, with Tiafoe unable to cope with the aggressive tennis from his opponent.

“I started so nervous. He started good, I think,” Baez assessed. “After the third game, it was so important for both. I started to play better…. The key was trying to be in the game every time, try to think what I had to do, and that’s the difference today.”

Baez defeated three former champions on his way to the final: Jaoa Sousa in the opening round, Richard Gasquet in the quarter-finals and defending champ Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the semis. Alongside sixth seed Ramos-Vinolas, he also beat third seed Marin Cilic and fifth seed Tiafoe.

Tiafoe provided inspiration for Baez throughout the week after the Argentine noticed his bracelet which reads “Why not me?” Baez wrote those words on the camera lens after his victories this week. After his title-clinching win, he wrote “Yes it’s me” alongside his signature.

“Unbelievable job by Sebastian. He deserved it. He played better than me today,” Tiafoe said during the ceremony, before addressing the Portuguese fans. “I just want to thank you guys, honestly. You guys made it an unbelievable week for me. I played some crazy, crazy matches and I hope you guys really enjoyed it. I tried to give everything I had this week. Unfortunately I didn’t have much today, but you guys were unbelievable. I hope I can come back for many years and we can keep putting a show on this court. It’s one of my favourite courts to play in.”

After receiving the trophy, Baez said to Tiafoe: “Why not me? And why not you, man?”

The Portuguese doubles duo of Nuno Borges and Francisco Cabral made the most of a wild card into the Millennium Estoril Open by winning the ATP 250 title on Sunday. The 25-year-olds defeated Maximo Gonzalez and Andre Goransson, 6-2, 6-3, in the championship match.

“It’s an unreal feeling winning on home soil,” Cabral said during the trophy ceremony. “First ATP event, first main draw, first title with Nuno, my childhood best friend. I couldn’t be happier.”

“Thank you for everybody who made it here to make this moment a little more special than anything I had before,” added Borges, addressing the home crowd.

Both making their ATP Tour debut this week, Borges and Cabral improved to 5-0 as a team at tour-level events following a Davis Cup victory earlier this season. They are 13-1 across all levels on the year, winning two ATP Challenger Tour titles in Oeiras in April, and finished the 2021 season on a 15-match winning streak at the Challenger level. The pair won six Challenger titles and reached two finals last season.

The duo did not face a break point in the Estoril title match while converting on three of their eight chances. From 2-2 in the opening set, they won eight of nine games to take command on centre court.

After winning a pair of Match Tie-breaks to open their Estoril campaign, Borges and Cabral knocked off top seeds Jamie Murray and Michael Venus in straight sets in the semi-finals before their dominant final performance.

Spaniard Rafael Nadal has played down his title expectations ahead of the Mutua Madrid Open as he prepares to return to the ATP Tour after a six-week injury layoff.

The World No. 4 will be aiming to clinch his sixth trophy at the ATP Masters 1000 event in the Spanish capital. Due to a rib injury, he has not played since Taylor Fritz ended his perfect season in the Indian Wells final in March.

“I have improved compared to when I arrived here [in Madrid], but I still have ups and downs, because it’s been a long time. It’s going to be a difficult week,” Nadal said. “That’s the reality. We have to be calm, we have to accept that things are going to be far away from perfection, but then onwards we just have to fight. I’m recovered. I feel good.

“It’s a very tight tournament for me,” Nadal added when asked about his preparation time. “We will have to take the positives and perhaps I will have good moments playing on court. We have to have some patience. We have to be humble day after day to see what happens. I will try to improve every day.”

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While the 35-year-old has found the timing of his injury setback frustrating, he stated that his body has now recovered. Nadal will face Alexander Bublik or Miomir Kecmanovic in his opening match and is seeded to meet #NextGenATP Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz in a blockbuster quarter-final.

“It’s difficult when you have these injuries in the middle of the season, it’s difficult to recover. But my ideas are very clear,” Nadal said. “I know that the moment has been negative. A goal for me is to be able to accept what happened and be able to play as best as possible. I know it’s going to be difficult, but I’m also confident. I know that things started very well at the beginning of the season.”

The Spaniard captured a record-breaking 21st Grand Slam title at the Australian Open and also clinched trophies at the Melbourne Summer Set and Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC in the opening two months of the season.

Although Nadal is pleased with his career-best start to a year (20-1), he is, like any great champion, focusing on the future. Triumphing in Madrid would draw him level with Novak Djokovic on a record-equalling 37 Masters 1000 crowns.

“In our sport, there is not much time to think about Australia anymore,” Nadal said. “Australia was amazing, without a doubt, one of the most emotional moments in my tennis career. But during the past month, I was thinking about my injury.

“It is not a sport that you have time to celebrate a lot of victories if you want to keep being competitive for the next couple of events, and that’s what I try to do, even like this.”

Holger Rune became an ATP Tour winner for the first time on Saturday, after his opponent Botic van de Zandschulp was forced to retire in the final of the BMW Open by American Express in Munich.

Van de Zandschulp led 4-3 in the opening set with Rune serving at 40/15 when the Dutchman retired due to an aching chest. Both eighth-seeded van de Zandschulp and wild card Rune had reached their maiden tour-level final on debut at the ATP 250 event in Germany.

“This was probably the worst way to win a final,” said Rune after the match. “I was obviously expecting a very tough match and he came out very strong. I just wish him all the best, a speedy recovery, and we all just hope to see him back on the court very soon.”

The run to the title caps a memorable week for Rune, who turned 19 on Friday. With the win, the Dane becomes the third-youngest Munich champion in the Open Era, and the fifth first-time winner on the ATP Tour in 2022. He notched a maiden Top 10 victory against World No. 3 Alexander Zverev in the second round, also seeing off Jiri Lehecka, Emil Ruusuvuori and Oscar Otte in straight sets on his way to the title.

“I’m super happy, of course,” added Rune. “As I said, not the way I want it to end, but if I look through the week, what a week. I played some unbelievable tennis, really fighting my way through it. To be playing here in Munich and winning my first ATP title in front of such a brilliant crowd, I couldn’t really ask for more.”

It is the 20th anniversary of the Mutua Madrid Open, which has developed into one of the premier events on the ATP Tour. Today Spanish tennis is widely considered a force, with players who will be remembered as legends. But the turning point for the Armada can be traced back to the tournament’s arrival in Madrid two decades ago.

Carlos Moyà became their first man to reach No. 1 in the ATP Rankings in 1999 and the Spaniards claimed their first Davis Cup in 2000, putting the country firmly on the global tennis map for the first time since its great pioneers wielded their wooden racquets. With four-time Grand Slam champion Manolo Santana as the project’s visible figurehead, the city of Madrid purchased the licence that was then owned by Stuttgart to bring the event to the Spanish capital. The city had itself a Masters Series competition (then the name of the ATP Tour’s top-tier tournaments) in October.

Forming part of the indoor swing, played on hard courts in the Rockodrome in Casa de Campo, a picturesque corner of the Spanish capital, the tournament bolstered Spanish tennis’ international clout. It was one of nine Masters Series on the men’s calendar. One of the most powerful nations on the courts finally had an event to match in the ATP Tour’s top category.

Countless greats graced its courts at the turn of the century. Following in the footsteps of its first champion, Andre Agassi, Madrid became accustomed to watching legends of the game play season after season. In 2003, Juan Carlos Ferrero entertained his home fans as the world’s No. 1 player and greatness was becoming a genuine part of the collective Spanish imagination. From then on, the stars kept returning to Madrid.

In 2005, Rafael Nadal, a 19-year-old teenager starting out on his path to glory, earned his first Madrid title with an epic comeback in the final against Ivan Ljubicic. In 2006, Roger Federer entered the winners’ circle in a reflection of the calibre of the tournament. The first seven editions on hard court served to establish Madrid as a mainstay event and one of the biggest and most coveted titles on the men’s professional calendar.

A fundamental change for the tournament came in 2009. With the restructuring of the ATP Tour and the arrival of the ATP Masters 1000 category, Madrid took a giant step towards its current state. In a country with a long tradition on clay, the tournament moved from October to May and from hard court to the red dirt in the heart of the European clay swing. Madrid took the spot that had been occupied by Hamburg since the 1970s, ratifying its position as a key stop on Tour.

In addition, in a move that grew the tournament beyond the boundaries of the ATP Tour for the first time, the event added a women’s competition. That made the Mutua Madrid Open one of the world’s biggest mixed events.

Another key step came two years later. The altitude of Madrid, at almost 600 metres above sea level, has always given the event its own unique characteristics. The added ball speed complicates ball-striking for players who favour an attacking game. This peculiarity led Madrid to move its start date forward, to the week before the Rome tournament, in order to provide a more similar setup immediately before Roland Garros.

Madrid had fashioned four facets that are key for the success of any tournament: tradition (with a decade of history now behind it on Tour); an ideal surface for fans who were used to watching clay-court tennis; a favourable position on the calendar and, perhaps most important of all, a first-rate venue in the Caja Mágica.

At a time when Madrid was making a strong bid to host the Olympic Games, with candidacies presented for 2012 and 2016, a majestic sports complex was erected on the banks of the River Manzanares. Boasting three stadiums with retractable roofs and the stunning 12,500-capacity Manolo Santana Stadium as its centrepiece, flanked by the Arantxa Sánchez Stadium (3,500 seats) and Stadium 3 (2,500), Madrid had itself a venue that was the envy of the Tour and was able to complete every year’s competition with scant concern for the weather.

The Mutua Madrid Open had become an iconic event for the Spanish capital, with an annual economic impact of more than 100 million euros, preserved by the various governments that have occupied the City Council. In a city that is home to some of the world’s best sports clubs, tennis had firmly laid its foundations and elevated its position in society.

If the event is known for one thing, it is its willingness to innovate and convert a traditional sport into an opportunity for fearless innovations. In 2012, the momentous arrival of the blue clay was a burst of creativity on the circuit, breaking the mould of the classic red clay and generating a revolution for television broadcasts. Better contrast between ball and court made Madrid the focus of the world’s attention in an edition that was dominated by the huge talents of Federer, the only player to have won the tournament on three surfaces (indoor hard court, red clay and blue clay).

In a country with a long tradition of sporting heroes, the legend of Nadal has outshone them all. With a total of five crowns, the Spaniard has managed to adapt his greatness to the special conditions of Madrid. From earning his first crown on the indoor courts as a teenager to his four titles on the Caja Mágica clay (2010, 2013-14, 2017), the Balearic Islander has been an essential driving force behind the Mutua Madrid Open’s status as one of the biggest events in Madrid. The packed stands of the Madrid Arena and the Manolo Santana Stadium have witnessed the arrival, consolidation and maturity of a global sports icon.

Alongside the feats of the Mallorcan, some of the greatest champions of the modern era have dominated the event. Federer (2006, 2009, 2012) and Novak Djokovic (2011, 2016, 2019) have won the tournament three times, and Andy Murray (2008, 2015) and Alexander Zverev (2018, 2021) have accomplished the feat twice, showing the title is only within reach of the greatest of talents.

Over its 20 years of history, the Mutua Madrid Open has sought to define itself through attention to detail and determination. In the 2019 season, Feliciano López took the baton from Santana as the tournament director. Santana’s great legacy includes achieving one of his main goals when the event began in 2002 — having a tournament worthy of the greatness of Spanish tennis. From then on, with Santana becoming the Honorary President, the responsibility lay on the shoulders of López, still an active player and one of the most experienced on Tour.

As two great decades of tennis come to a close this week, Madrid has a huge party to look forward to and a great future ahead of it. Having recently signed a deal with the Madrid City Council to hold the tournament until at least the 2030 season, Santana’s dream will continue to deliver with the same verve as it has done since its early years.

FIVE MEMORABLE MUTUA MADRID OPEN MOMENTS

A Historic Semi-final
Nadal and Djokovic produced an unforgettable, record-breaking match in the 2009 Mutua Madrid Open. In the first edition played on the Caja Mágica clay, the Spaniard and Serbian played the longest three-set match of all-time. Their battle lasted four hours and three minutes with Nadal emerging victorious 3-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(9). The magic had commenced in Madrid.

Nalbandian Does The Impossible
In 2007, David Nalbandian achieved one of the greatest feats in ATP Tour history. When Madrid was still held on indoor hard courts, the Argentine got his hands on the trophy by beating the top three players in the ATP Rankings — No. 2 Nadal, No. 3 Djokovic and No. 1 Federer — consecutively, in three days. Nalbandian is still the only player to have defeated Nadal, Djokovic and Federer in the same tournament.

^{Photo Credit: AFP/Getty Images}
Rafa’s First Win In Madrid
In 2005, aged 19, Nadal showed Madrid the spirit with which he would go on to build his legend. Under the roof in Casa de Campo, in a stadium packed to the rafters to support him in his first final in the city, the Balearic Islander made a seemingly impossible comeback against the Croatian Ivan Ljubicic 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(3) to claim his first title in Madrid. “It’s been the best week of my life”, Nadal said at the time.

The Big Three Dominate
Nadal, Djokovic and Federer have made Madrid a hotbed for their conquests. They are the only players who have won at least three titles in the Spanish capital and their stats leave little room for doubt. Since the tournament moved to the Caja Mágica, they have managed to win 11 of the titles, including the first six editions on clay.

Nadal Meets Alcaraz
The 2021 edition witnessed an emotional moment, the significance of which will only become clear with the passing of time. On his 18th birthday, #NextGenATP Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz faced Nadal for the first time in an official match, much to the delight of the Madrid fans. A packed Manolo Santana Stadium witnessed a potentially iconic moment for Spanish tennis. It was another page to add to the Mutua Madrid Open’s golden book of history.

Rehab following knee surgery is preventing Roger Federer from lighting up the ATP Tour at the moment, but it is not stopping the 103-time tour-level titlist from delivering off the court.

In his role as President of the Roger Federer Foundation, the Swiss this week visited Malawi to show his support for efforts being made to provide some of the most vulnerable children in the African nation with access to formal education.

The 40-year-old met children, caregivers, teachers, and parents involved with the School Readiness Programme, an initiative launched in 2020 by his foundation in partnership with local organisations. The programme is currently working with 900 community-based childcare centres, helping them collaborate with local stakeholders to push for improved access to formal early education for children living in poverty in the nation of nearly 20 million people.

The long-term goal of the School Readiness Programme is to reach 2,500 community-based childcare centres in Malawi by 2026.

Federer also met with the Malawian government’s Minister of Gender, Community Development and Social Services to officially hand over 3,000 “early-learning kiosks”, which are tablets with pre-loaded apps, tools and guides designed to help caregivers improve participation in organised learning.

“Wonderful to see that we are having a real impact on the ground with the @rogerfederer.foundation,” Federer wrote on Instagram. “Access to quality early education is crucial as it is the foundation of all learning. I am so happy I made my way to Malawi.”

Did You Know?
The Roger Federer Foundation, founded in 2003, aims to support educational projects in southern Africa and Switzerland. It has impacted the lives of more than 1.98 million children, with School Readiness Programmes also being implemented in Lesotho, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. The Foundation has been working in Malawi since 2011 and has since invested $18 million into educational projects in the country.

Federer was named the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year in the ATP Awards in 2006 and 2013.

– All photos courtesy of the Roger Federer Foundation by Jens Honoré