Time was winding down before the start of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell. At 1 p.m., Rafael Nadal stepped on to Court 9 of the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona to work on some last-minute adjustments with coaches Carlos Moya and Francis Roig. After an hour of training, the Spaniard headed back to the locker room to decompress before beginning his quest for a 12th crown in Barcelona.

On Wednesday, Nadal outlasted Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer 6-7(7), 6-4, 6-2 advance to the third round, where he’ll face fellow Spaniard David Ferrer.

Twelve titles is an unprecedented benchmark, but for the 32-year-old from Manacor, it’s business as usual. His numbers at other clay court events are equally impressive: Nadal is an 11-time champion at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters and emerged victorious eight times at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome. In the 455 matches he’s contested on clay, Nadal has emerged victorious 92 per cent of the time. In all, Nadal has hoisted 57 trophies from tournaments competed on clay. Those credentials have solidified Nadal’s place as the undisputed King of Clay.

So what is it about Nadal that makes him such an unstoppable force on his favorite surface?

Dominic Thiem has an idea. As one of only two players to defeat him once in each of the last two seasons (QF in Rome 2017 and QF in Madrid 2018), the Austrian understands it takes special circumstances and the right conditions to unravel Nadal. Since 2017, they have faced each other seven times in European clay-court events, with Nadal holding a 5-2 edge.

“I think that Barcelona, Monte Carlo and Roland Garros are the tournaments where it is more complicated to beat him,” said Thiem. “He’s at home and in his zone when the courts are slow and it makes landing a winner that much more difficult.

“He’s also a master when it comes to conserving energy. He launches powerful shots, but he knows how to generate just the right amount of power at exactly the right time. Combine that with his mobility on the surface and you’ve got the perfect formula for success on clay.”

Even a surprising 4-6, 2-6 loss last week to eventual champion Fabio Fognini at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters does little to convince Nadal’s peers that he’s anything but invincible. World No. 3 Alexander Zverev is winless against Nadal in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series (0-5), with three of his losses coming on clay.

“He’s a colossus; the best clay-court player in the world,” said Zverev. “You know it’s never going to be an easy day if you have to play with Nadal on clay.”

In addition, the conditions to fight for the Conde de Godó Trophy add an extra element that Sascha does not overlook: Nadal plays at home.

“Facing against him in Spain does not make the challenge easier. We played once in Spain, in Davis Cup [in 2018], and it was a very difficult game,” said Zverev. “I have the feeling that he enjoys it. He knows he’s the best and somehow connects with the stands.”

A similar reaction generates Stefanos Tsitsipas’ association to Nadal’s name and the red clay. The Greek already knows what it is to cross Nadal on this surface, having done so last year in the Barcelona final.

”He has a gift … in my opinion, he’s very fast,” says the No. 8 in the world. “He covers the track very well so you always have the feeling that, no matter what stroke you use, you’re always behind the ball. He always plays with a lot of depth and has a lot of topspin effect in his shots. On clay, that’s not easy to handle.”

Denis Shapovalov is another player who has experienced just how powerful Nadal is on this surface. He played the Spaniard last year in the third round of Rome and only managed to win five games.

“You realise why he’s so good,” said Shapovalov. “He knows the tactics perfectly. Even if you know what you are going to do, it is very difficult to react or try to stop it. He is so aggressive on this surface and his tactics are so well built.

“He reads your punches and is a complete player in clay, but he’s hard to beat on any surface. He is a great champion and his style of play is very hard. He is a fighter. Even if you go up 40/0 against him, you know you can’t lose concentration. He’s never going to give you a free point and it puts enormous pressure on the opponent. It’s something that I’ve always admired about him and I’m trying to incorporate that into my game.”

Another #NextGenATP player, Frances Tiafoe, joked that all clay-court tournaments should carry the Spaniard’s name. Pista Rafa Nadal in Barcelona is apparently not enough.

“I don’t think anyone will ever manage to emulate what he has achieved,” said the American. “He’s won Monte Carlo eleven times! You can’t match that. I am happy to see a player who has done that in our sport. Rafa is one of the best players of all time.”

Attila Balazs gave the hometown fans plenty to cheer for at the Hungarian Open in Budapest. The wild card, currently No. 246 in the ATP Rankings, stunned 2018 runner-up and sixth seed John Millman of Australia 6-4, 2-6, 6-2.

Balazs, who took out in-form Pole Hubert Hurkacz in the opening round, is through to his first ATP quarter-final in seven years (2012 Bucharest SF, l. to Fognini). The 30-year-old returned to action in March after missing seven months due to a hip injury. Balazs’ injury woes forced him off the tour for two years, but he returned to action in August 2016 and has played primarily on the ATP Challenger Tour since then.

Next up for Balazs is Pierre-Hugues Herbert of France, who rallied from 1-5 in the opening set and saved a set point to defeat Matthias Bachinger of Germany 7-5, 6-2. Bachinger moved into the draw as a lucky loser after third seed and defending champion Marco Cecchinato of Italy pulled out due to illness.

Italian teenager Jannik Sinner won the first ATP Tour main draw match of his career by defeating Hungarian wild card Mate Valkusz 6-2, 0-6, 6-4. The 17-year-old snuck into the draw as a lucky loser when Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters finalist Dusan Lajovic of Serbia withdrew due to an elbow injury.

Sinner won his first ATP Challenger Tour title this February in Bergamo. He started the year at No. 546 in the ATP Rankings and is guaranteed to move into the Top 300 on Monday. The teenager will now face fifth seed Laslo Djere of Serbia for a place in the quarter-finals.

Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay hung tough to defeat German qualifier Yannick Maden 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. Cuevas, who won last week’s ATP Challenger Tour event in Tunis without dropping a set, will take on top seed Marin Cilic of Croatia on Thursday.

Rafael Nadal missed out on three set points in the first set on Wednesday, but battled back against Leonardo Mayer to keep alive his bid for a 12th title at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell.

Four days on from his shock semi-final loss to Fabio Fognini at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, Nadal committed 36 unforced errors (16 in the first set) in the windy conditions at the ATP 500 tournament, but grew in confidence on serve to complete a 6-7(7), 6-4, 6-2 second-round victory over Mayer in two hours and 50 minutes.

The 32-year-old, who has an outstanding 59-3 match record in Barcelona, will next challenge fellow Spaniard and former World No. 3 David Ferrer, who he beat in the 2008-09, 2011-12 finals. Nadal has a 25-6 record against Ferrer in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series.

Top seed Nadal failed to close out the first set when serving at 5-3, and struck a forehand into the net at 5-4, with Mayer serving at 30/40. Two further set point chances for Nadal weren’t converted at 6/5 and 7/6 in the tie-break, before Mayer ripped a forehand winner at 8/7 to complete the 72-minute opener.

Nadal bounced back immediately, breaking in the opening game of the second set, which saw him lose seven of his service points and save one break point at 4-3, 30/40. He made his move in the fifth game of the decider with consecutive passing strokes to cheers of the capacity Pista Rafa Nadal crowd, and broke for a 5-2 lead courtesy of a forehand winner down the line.

Nadal has never lost consecutive matches on clay, on which he has compiled a 419-37 match record (.919) according to the FedEx ATP Performance Zone. Earlier in the day, Ferrer swept past No. 15 seed Lucas Pouille of France 6-3, 6-1 for a place in the third round.

Felix Auger-Aliassime will face two-time Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell champion Kei Nishikori for a place in the quarter-finals of the ATP 500 event.

The 16^th seed won 77 per cent of his first-serve points and fought off Tunisian Malek Jaziri 6-3, 7-6(7) to make the third round. Auger-Aliassime improved to 2-1 during the European clay-court swing, after making the second round at last week’s Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters (l. to Zverev), the season’s first clay-court ATP Masters 1000 event.

Watch Hot Shot: Felix Finds Exquisite Angle In Barcelona

The 19-year-old Auger-Aliassime, No. 31, is at a career-high in the ATP Rankings. He is the highest-ranked player his age since No. 25 Lleyton Hewitt on 8 November 1999. It will be his first FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting against No. 7 Nishikori, who won the event in 2014-2015.

Monte-Carlo semi-finalist Daniil Medvedev backed up his best Masters 1000 run with a gritty performance against Barcelona native Albert Ramos-Vinolas, who made the Monte-Carlo final in 2017, 6-3, 2-6, 6-1.

Medvedev, who beat Stefanos Tsitsipas and Novak Djokovic last week, saved five of six break points to make the third round and will next meet American Mackenzie McDonald, who knocked out 11^th seed Gilles Simon 6-3, 6-2.

“I’m really happy with the way that I finished the match, and the first and third sets were a really good level,” Medvedev said.

Monte-Carlo champion Fabio Fognini withdrew (hamstring) but Spain’s Roberto Carballes Baena took advantage of his lucky loser spot, beating Spanish wild card Nicola Kuhn 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-2. The 2018 Quito titlist will play reigning Houston champion Cristian Garin, who dismissed ninth seed Denis Shapovalov of Canada 7-5, 6-2. Garin beat #NextGenATP Norwegian Casper Ruud earlier this month to win his maiden ATP Tour title at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship.

The ATP announced today that the city of Turin, Italy, has been selected to host the ATP Finals from 2021-2025. The five-year agreement will see the world’s greatest players in men’s professional tennis compete for the biggest indoor tennis title in the world at Turin’s Pala Alpitour stadium, Italy’s largest indoor sporting arena.

The winning Turin bid was put together by the Italian Tennis Federation and Sport e Salute SpA in partnership with the Italian Government, the municipality of Turin and Regione Piemonte. The move to Turin brings the ATP Finals to Italy for the first time in its 50-year history and makes Turin the 15th city to host the prestigious season-ending tournament since its inception in 1970.

Chris Kermode, ATP Executive Chairman & President, said: “Our congratulations to Turin on putting together such a comprehensive and impressive bid. Italy provides us with one of the strongest and most established tennis markets in Europe and has a proven track record for hosting world class tennis events with the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome, as well as the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan.

We’re delighted to expand on our successful partnership with the FIT and Sport e Salute SpA and we look forward to bringing the ATP’s flagship season-ending event to tennis’s growing fanbase in Italy for the first time.

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“The success of the ATP Finals is critical to the health of the ATP and we believe that Turin has all the ingredients to take the event to new heights and to continue the tournament’s growth following a highly successful 12-year stint in London that will come to an end in 2020. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all our event partners in London, particularly AEG, and all the fans that have made the tournament such a success at The O2 since 2009.”

Novak Djokovic, World No.1 and President of the ATP Player Council, said: “The ATP Finals is the biggest and most prestigious event that we have at the ATP. It’s a tournament that has historically moved around and so I’m very excited to see it move to Turin from 2021. It’s still a few years away but I know that the players will be very excited to compete there, and I also hope to be part of what will be a very special event.”

Chiara Appendino, Mayor of Turin, said: “We are extremely proud that Turin has been chosen to host the ATP Finals 2021-2025 as sport has long been a significant part of the history and the culture of our city. As a City we will come together to harness the knowhow of a vast range of local experts in organizing international sporting events and we are confident that our unique combination of passion and experience will deliver opportunities to appreciate this exhilarating sport in sustainable and innovative ways. Turin looks forward to building a truly spectacular event for players and fans the world over!”

Angelo Binaghi, President of the Italian Tennis Federation, said: “The assignment of the great task to organize the ATP Finals in Turin from 2021 to 2025 represents a remarkable international success of our country. Our project has proved to be extremely successful thanks to the great work carried out together with the Italian Government and the local authorities. A team work which I am sure will live up to the wonderful tradition of the end-of-season historical Masters, and offer a very brilliant future”.

The unique season-ending tournament, featuring only the world’s best eight qualified singles players and doubles teams of the season, will boast a record prize purse of US$14,500,000 in 2021.

Turin was the first capital city of Italy from 1861 to 1865. The city has hosted some of the world’s biggest sporting events, such as the 2006 Winter Olympic Games, and is also home to two Serie A football teams, Juventus FC and Torino FC. The ATP’s decision brings to a close an extensive international bid process that began in August 2018 in which more than 40 cities worldwide expressed an interest in hosting the ATP season finale.

An official presentation with representatives from ATP, FIT, Italian government and City of Torino will take place in Turin on Monday 29th April at 12:30PM at Palazzo Madama, Piazza Castello.

World No. 6 Kevin Anderson announced Tuesday on Twitter that he will not compete on clay this year in order to further recover an elbow injury.

“I wanted to let you all know that I will unfortunately be missing the clay season this year. After discussing with my doctors and team, we thought the best decision is to rest and rehab my elbow injury for a few more weeks,” wrote Anderson, whose most recent tournament was in Miami, where he advanced to the quarter-finals. “I will keep working hard each day to get healthy again in time for grass.”

Anderson, a first-time qualifier for the Nitto ATP Finals last year, was scheduled to compete in Estoril, Madrid, Rome and Roland Garros. In 2018, he made the semi-finals in Madrid and the fourth round at Roland Garros.

The grass season proved a key part of last year’s season for the South African. After losing in the first round at Queen’s Club, Anderson made his second Grand Slam final at Wimbledon.

“I know this is the right decision for the longterm in the career,” Anderson said of not competing on clay in 2019. “I will also miss seeing the fans there, but I appreciate all of your support and look forward to seeing you again soon.”

pic.twitter.com/rDuAcSRUHg

— Kevin Anderson (@KAndersonATP) April 23, 2019

Rafael Nadal, who is pursuing his 12th title at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell this week, has accomplished virtually everything a player can on clay in his career. But at 32, there are some still things Nadal has not done.

The Spaniard still has not lost consecutive matches on the surface. At all levels, Nadal has dropped just 45 clay-court matches. In the 44 matches that have come after those defeats, he has lost a combined six sets. The Spaniard won 30 sets in those matches by a margin of 6-0 or 6-1.

In 2011, Novak Djokovic defeated Nadal in the final of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia. And in the Spaniard’s next match, John Isner took a two-sets-to-one lead at Roland Garros before the lefty battled back to advance and eventually win the title. That was the closest Nadal ever came to losing back-to-back clay-court matches.

Nadal will look to keep it that way on Wednesday when the top seed faces Argentine Leonardo Mayer in his opening match in Barcelona. Nadal owns a 5-0 FedEx ATP Head2Head series lead against the World No. 63, winning 13 of 14 sets in their rivalry.

In other action, #NextGenATP Canadian stars Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov will both open their campaigns. Auger-Aliassime begins play on Pista Rafa Nadal against Tunisian Malek Jaziri.

Felix, the 16th seed, is making his debut at the ATP 500 event. Shapovalov, who reached the semi-finals in Madrid on clay last year, opens against Houston champion Cristian Garin.

Wild card and former World No. 3 David Ferrer, competing in Barcelona for the last time, will try to spring an upset against 15th seed Lucas Pouille. Ferrer cruised past German Mischa Zverev in 65 minutes on Tuesday.

Also in action are Monte-Carlo champion Fabio Fognini, Monte-Carlo semi-finalist Daniil Medvedev and sixth seed Karen Khachanov.

Research courtesy of Michael Hastin.