Djokovic v Nadal, Thiem v Cuevas In Madrid SFs

View FedEx ATP Head2Head for the following match-ups on Saturday at the Mutua Madrid Open & vote for who you think will win! 
Djokovic v Nadal | Thiem v Cuevas

The Novak Djokovic vs. Rafael Nadal rivalry becomes the first in the Open Era to reach 50 matches when the living legends meet in the Mutua Madrid Open semi-finals on Saturday. Djokovic is 26-23 against Nadal, with win streaks of seven matches and 15 sets. Nadal has not taken a set off of Djokovic since the 2014 Roland Garros final, when the Spaniard secured his ninth title in Paris.

Nadal is the greatest clay-court player of the Open Era with a 378-34 record on the surface (.917). However, he’s lost his last three matches and is 14-7 overall against Djokovic on clay (.667). No other player owns more than three clay-court wins over Nadal. Gaston Gaudio defeated Nadal three times on clay before the Spaniard turned 19 and won his first Roland Garros title in 2005.

Djokovic is in the midst of his second seven-match win streak against Nadal, sweeping seven straight finals from 2011 Indian Wells through the 2012 Australian Open. The No. 2 and No. 4 seeds have split two prior match-ups in Madrid and 16 prior semi-finals. They have met at all four Grand Slams, the ATP Finals, the Olympics, Davis Cup, and eight of the nine ATP Masters 1000 events (not Shanghai). Djokovic is 16-9 with five straight wins over Nadal at ATP Masters 1000s.

Nadal and Djokovic last met exactly one year ago on May 13, 2016, when the Serbian scored a 7-5, 7-6(4) quarter-final win in Rome. This is the longest gap between meetings since their rivalry was born on June 7, 2006, with a Nadal victory in the Roland Garros quarter-finals. Nadal won 14 of their first 18 meetings, culminating in a four-hour, three-minute triumph in the 2009 Madrid semi-finals. Djokovic, however, has claimed 11 of their last 12 meetings since losing in the 2013 US Open final.

First-time ATP Masters 1000 semi-finalists Dominic Thiem and Pablo Cuevas will play for a spot opposite Djokovic or Nadal in Sunday’s final. In their only previous match-up, Cuevas edged Thiem 7-6(7), 7-5, 6-7(5), 7-5 after three hours and 51 minutes at 2015 Roland Garros. The eighth-seeded Thiem overcame an 0-4 record in ATP Masters 1000 quarter-finals to beat Borna Coric on Friday.

Cuevas has earned three-set wins over unseeded opponents in all four of his matches this week. The 27th-ranked Cuevas is unseeded as well and trying to tie John Isner at 2016 Paris as the lowest-ranked ATP Masters 1000 finalist since No. 29 Gilles Simon at 2014 Shanghai. He would be the lowest-ranked ATP Masters 1000 champion since No. 50 Tomas Berdych at 2005 Paris.

MOST MEETINGS IN OPEN ERA

Novak Djokovic vs Rafael Nadal 50 Djokovic Leads 26-23

Novak Djokovic vs Roger Federer 45 Djokovic Leads 23-22

Roger Federer vs Rafael Nadal 37 Nadal Leads 23-14

Novak Djokovic vs Andy Murray 36 Djokovic Leads 25-11

Ivan Lendl vs John McEnroe 36 Lendl Leads 21-15

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