Eighth seed Dominic Thiem reached his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final on Saturday at the Mutua Madrid Open, not facing a break point in defeating Pablo Cuevas in a physical 6-4, 6-4 match that ended after midnight.

“I feel great. It means a lot to play my first final at this level. These tournaments are so strong, so it’s amazing for me to go that far. I’m very happy at the moment,” said Thiem. “I will give everything tomorrow and hope I can play a good final.”

The Austrian will play Rafael Nadal in Sunday’s final after the Spaniard defeated Novak Djokovic earlier in the day. Nadal leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head series with Thiem 3-1, with all four of their matches coming on clay. The four-time Madrid champion dropped just five games in defeating Thiem two weeks ago in the Barcelona final.

“I think he played a very good match in Barcelona. I played well also. If I’m at my best and he’s at his best on clay, he’s probably the better player. If you see his records on this surface, it’s just amazing,” said Thiem. “But tomorrow is a new day. I will try to improve the things I didn’t do that good in Barcelona and then we will see what happens.”

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Thiem evens his FedEx ATP Head2Head series with Cuevas at 1-1, gaining revenge over a loss at Roland Garros in 2015. The 23-year-old Austrian had gone 0-4 in his previous Masters 1000 quarter-finals prior to this week, but broke the streak on Friday against lucky loser and #NextGenATP Croatian Borna Coric.

Thiem has continued to excel on clay in 2017, winning the title this February in Rio de Janeiro (d. Carreno Busta) and finishing runner-up two weeks ago in Barcelona (l. Nadal). He improves to 14-2 this season on the red dirt. In addition to scoring his first victory over a World No. 1 against Andy Murray in the Barcelona semi-finals, he staged a miraculous comeback in Madrid by saving five match points to defeat 12^th seed Grigor Dimitrov in their third-round battle.

Despite the loss, Cuevas can be pleased with reaching his first Masters 1000 semi-final. The 31-year-old Uruguayan won four consecutive three-set matches to make the final four. Cuevas also picked up the biggest win of his career by defeating Stan Wawrinka en route to a quarter-final finish in Monte-Carlo.

Thiem and Cuevas could face off again in the second round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia. Cuevas opens up against a qualifier or lucky loser, while Thiem has an opening-round bye.

Although Cuevas stayed close in the scoreline throughout the first set with Thiem, the eighth seed comfortably held serve while Cuevas was often forced to deuce or saving break points. Thiem grabbed the lone break of the opening set at 2-2 with an overhead winner and maintained his slight lead to take the early advantage.

Both players remained even early in the second set, but Thiem played 15 points in his first three service games while Cuevas played 33. The long week caught up to Cuevas at 4-4 and he dropped serve after being unable to dig up a low approach from the Austrian. Thiem easily held in the next game to wrap up the match in one hour and 23 minutes.

Frenchmen Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin ended Spain’s hopes of having a home doubles champion at the Mutua Madrid Open on Saturday. The sixth-seeded Frenchmen knocked out eighth seeds Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez 6-2, 6-3 in 67 minutes to reach the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 doubles final.

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Lopez/Lopez were attempting to become the first Spanish team to win the Madrid title in the 16-year history of the tournament. Mahut/Roger-Vasselin will meet fourth seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo, who received a walkover into the doubles final when Nick Kyrgios and Jack Sock withdrew because Kyrgios has a left hip injury.

Kubot/Melo have now reached three of the season’s four Masters 1000 doubles finals. They made the final at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells (l. to Klaasen/Ram) and at the Miami Open presented by Itau (d. Monroe/Sock). Kubot/Melo also reached the quarter-finals (l. to Lopez/Lopez) at last month’s Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, the season’s third Masters 1000 tournament.

Novak Djokovic is disappointed to lose his title at the Mutua Madrid Open, but was full of praise for Rafael Nadal after their semi-final match on Saturday.

The Serbian went in with a seven-match win streak against the Spaniard, but struggled to find answers to Nadal’s powerful baseline hitting in their 50^th FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting. Djokovic admitted afterwards that it would have been difficult to oust Nadal even if he were in peak form.

“Rafa was obviously a better player today. He deserved to win. He was controlling the game from beginning to the end,” said Djokovic. “His quality was very high and he managed to do whatever he wanted, especially in the first set. He did get the better of me in most of the stats today, most of the shots.”

However, the second seed didn’t mince words about his own performance. He hit 13 unforced errors in the opening set and often sprayed standard rally shots into the net or long. Although his effort never betrayed him, Djokovic said his game often did today.

“I tried my best. It wasn’t a very high quality of tennis from my side. I made a lot of unforced errors, especially in the first set, said Djokovic, “I felt like I was playing well throughout the week. I could have played better today. But, again, I just had an opponent that was too good. It’s just one of these days where your opponent is playing better than you, and you have to be able to say “congratulations” and move on.

But despite the loss, Djokovic said there are positives to take as he heads to Rome for the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, where he has won four times (2008, 2011, 2014-2015) and finished runner-up three times (2009, 2012, 2016). The World No. 2 reached his first ATP World Tour semi-final and faced a player inside the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings for the first time since his opening event of the season in Doha. He believes having those experiences again will serve him well as he looks ahead to another difficult draw.

“It was really good to play in the semi-finals of a big event and to play against one of my top rivals. I haven’t had that feeling in months, so it’s great to feel that,” said Djokovic. “It was a positive week and a positive experience. I take more positives than negatives going into next week in Rome. As I go along, I hope to continue getting better and getting stronger.”