View FedEx ATP Head2Head for the quarter-final match-ups Friday at the Mutua Madrid Open & vote for who you think will win! 
Djokovic v Nishikori | Nadal v Goffin | Thiem v Coric | Zverev v Cuevas

Borna Coric, Pablo Cuevas, Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zverev have never reached the semi-finals of an ATP Masters 1000 event. Two will do so on Friday, one of whom will advance all the way to the final of the Mutua Madrid Open. The unlikely foursome isn’t entirely a surprise. Coric, Cuevas, Thiem and Zverev have each won a clay-court title on the ATP World Tour this season. 

Coric earned the biggest win of his career over World No. 1 Andy Murray 23 minutes after Zverev upset No. 11 seed Tomas Berdych on Thursday, making them the first #NextGenATP duo to reach the quarter-finals of an ATP Masters 1000 event. Nick Kyrgios, who aged out this season, is the only #NextGenATP player to appear in an ATP Masters 1000 semi-final, doing so at 2016 Miami.

Coric lost to World No. 80 Mikhail Kukushkin in qualifying on Sunday before replacing Richard Gasquet in the main draw. The lucky loser meets No. 8 seed Thiem in a rematch from Miami on March 25, when the Croat saved three set points in the second set to win 6-1, 7-5. Thiem is 0-4 in ATP Masters 1000 quarter-finals, though all four losses came against players ranked in the Top 6.

Zverev encounters Cuevas for the first time on tour. The unseeded Uruguayan is into his third ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final of the season after failing to advance this far in his first 28 appearances at this level. Cuevas held two match points against Pablo Carreno Busta at Indian Wells and was two points from defeating Lucas Pouille at Monte-Carlo before losing both of those quarter-finals.

Four-time champion Rafael Nadal and two-time champion Novak Djokovic could meet in the semi-finals, but first they must each defeat a Top 10 opponent on Friday. Djokovic opens play at 12 pm against No. 6 seed Kei Nishikori. Since stunning Djokovic in the 2014 US Open semi-finals, Nishikori has lost his last 10 meetings with the Serbian, including in the 2016 Madrid semi-finals.

Nadal faces No. 9 seed David Goffin for just the second time, having beaten the Belgian 6-3, 6-1 in the Monte-Carlo semi-finals on April 22. Nadal (31) and Goffin (27) lead all players in tour-level victories this season. The fourth-seeded Spaniard is 12-0 on clay in 2017 and could become the first player to sweep the Barcelona, Roland Garros and three clay-court ATP Masters 1000 titles.

2017 CLAY-COURT TITLES FOR MADRID QUARTER-FINALISTS
Borna Coric                        Marrakech
Pablo Cuevas                     Sao Paulo
Rafael Nadal                      ATP Masters 1000 Monte-Carlo, Barcelona
Dominic Thiem                  Rio de Janeiro
Alexander Zverev              Munich

View Friday schedule

Eighth seeds Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez set a clash with the top-seeded doubles team in the Mutua Madrid Open quarter-finals. The Spaniards defeated Tommy Haas and Max Mirnyi 6-3, 6-4 on Thursday to reach the last eight, where they will face Henri Kontinen and John Peers.

Ivan Dodig and Marcel Granollers, the seventh seeds, saved seven of the eight break points they faced to beat Fabio Fognini and Treat Huey 6-7(4), 7-5, 10-6. Next for the Croatian/Spanish tandem will be fourth seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo.

Also in Friday’s quarter-finals, third seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares will take on sixth seeds Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, and second seeds Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan will play Nick Kyrgios and Jack Sock.

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Andy Murray has been forgiving of himself this clay-court season as he returns from a right elbow injury, but didn’t hold back about his third-round performance against Borna Coric on Thursday at the Mutua Madrid Open.

The World No. 1 hit 28 unforced errors in two sets and allowed the #NextGenATP Croatian to dominate the match. Having won Madrid in 2015 and finished runner-up last year, the Brit knows his current form is below the level required to produce big runs at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 level events.

“I definitely think I need to be concerned about today. It’s not always the worst thing losing a match, but it’s sometimes the manner of how you lose the match that can be concerning or disappointing,” said Murray. “I was disappointed to lose my match against Thiem in Barcelona, but felt like I competed really well and did some good stuff in the match. Today, I didn’t really do any of that. That’s concerning. So I need to think about exactly why that is, what I can do about it.”

“Most things weren’t working particularly well. When I started to go behind, I didn’t find any way to improve my game or to make it more difficult for him. I just let the same things keep happening, making mistakes very early in a lot of the rallies. I wasn’t building any points,” he added. “That was disappointing because you’re not always going to play your best tennis, but you can still find ways to make it difficult for your opponent. I didn’t do that at all today.”

Murray has expressed frustration about his serve over the past month. The shot that played an essential role in his dominance throughout the second half of 2016 has admittedly let him down this spring. But while his practice court time was limited while recovering from the elbow injury, he believes his game should have progressed further by now.

“I think it was normal in Barcelona and Monte-Carlo that I wasn’t going to serve as well as I would normally because I was still getting better. But I was able to practice everything else. I was able to do everything physically. That’s no reason for how I played today and the past few weeks,” said Murray. “However, when you do miss a period of time, the most important thing is to play. I didn’t for a month. That set me back a little bit.”

Murray is well aware he has piles of Emirates ATP Rankings points to defend for the rest of the year. In the next month, he defends points from winning Madrid and finishing runner-up at Roland Garros last year. Although he admitted he won’t be able to match those high standards unless his game improves, the World No. 1 is optimistic his game can quickly round into form. 

“Borna lost in the qualifying here a few days ago. Now he’s in the quarters playing very good tennis. Things can change fast,” said Murray. “But you need to have the correct ideas and understand why you’re in the position you’re in. Hopefully I can do that with my team, and play better in Rome and Roland Garros.”

Eighth seed Dominic Thiem went the distance in his third-round match Thursday at the Mutua Madrid Open, saving five match points in a thrilling 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(9) victory over No. 12 seed Grigor Dimitrov.

“I think it was a very good match from both of us,” said Thiem, who improved to a 2-1 record against the Bulgarian in the FedEx ATP Head2Head series. “The tie-break in the third set was amazing. It was 4-3 for him and I played two very good points. He made two unbelievable rallies. The tie-break is always a little bit [of] luck, but I think it was a good match for both of us. That’s the bad thing about tennis, only one guy can win.”

The Austrian rallied from 2-4 in the final set and 3/6 in the tie-break, also saving match points at 6/7 and 8/9 before converting on his second match point to advance in two hours and 34 minutes. Thiem had forced a decisive set after fighting from 1-3 down in the second, starting his comeback by winning four straight games against Dimitrov.

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“I don’t always play good in the important points, but today yes,” he said. “I saved five match points. I don’t know if I ever saved that many match points in one match, so it’s a really good feeling.

“Tie-breaker is always 50/50. I would say it’s a little bit lucky. But in the third set I showed really good mentality. I was a break down earlier in the set and I came back good. I’m really happy I won a tie-breaker [match] because last one I lost against [Stan] Wawrinka in Indian Wells and now it was luckily my turn.”

With his victory, Thiem moves ahead of Wawrinka to No. 3 in the Emirates ATP Race To London, trailing just Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in the leaderboard. The 23 year old will be looking to qualify for the ATP Finals for a second straight year.  

Thiem also advances to his second ATP World Tour Masters 1000 quarter-final of the season, following his run earlier this year in Indian Wells, and will be looking to reach the semi-finals for the first time at this elite level. He advanced to the clay-court final two weeks ago at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, where he upset World No. 1 Andy Murray before falling to Nadal. 

He next faces #NextGenATP’s Borna Coric, who scored his own upset win over Murray earlier Thursday. Coric, a lucky loser this week in Madrid, defeated Thiem in their previous meeting earlier this year at the Miami Open presented by Itau.

#NextGenATP German Alexander Zverev booked a place in only his second ATP World Tour Masters 1000 quarter-final on Thursday when he overcame 2012 finalist Tomas Berdych at the Mutua Madrid Open.

The 20-year-old Zverev left No. 11 seed Berdych on 698 match wins after a 6-4, 6-4 victory in 75 minutes. He will next challenge Pablo Cuevas for the first time on Friday.

“Obviously today was a great match,” admitted Zverev. “But also the days before I played very well, against Marin [Cilic] yesterday and against Fernando [Verdasco] in the first round. I’m happy to be in the quarter-finals here.

“I didn’t have a lot of time to recover. I went to bed at about 3 a.m. because the [Cilic] match was done after midnight… That was a difficult thing, but I’m happy with the way I performed. Apart from maybe two games at 4-1 when I was up in the second set, everything else was very positive.”

Zverev converted his fourth break point opportunity for a 2-1 lead in the 40-minute opener. From 5-4, he then played with great poise to win five of the next six games to take a 4-1 advantage in the second set. Berdych recovered to 4-4, but dropped his serve to 30 with his only double fault of the match – much to his frustration. Zverev calmly closed out to love to improve to a 21-8 mark on 2017.

Zverev, who leads the Emirates ATP Race To Milan for a spot at the 21-and-under Next Gen ATP Finals from 7-11 November, also reached the quarter-finals of this year’s Miami Open presented by Itau (l. to Kyrgios). He has already won two ATP World Tour titles this season at the Open Sud de France (d. Gasquet) and at last week’s BMW Open by FWU (d. Pella).

Uruguayan Cuevas advanced to his third ATP World Tour Masters 1000 quarter-final of 2017 (also BNP Paribas Open and Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters) with a 7-5, 0-6, 6-1 victory over Benoit Paire, who beat World No. 2 Stan Wawrinka on Wednesday. It was Cuevas’ first victory over Paire in their fourth meeting.

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#NextGenATP Croatian Borna Coric is a lucky loser in the main draw at the Mutua Madrid Open, but showed plenty of skill in shocking World No. 1 Andy Murray 6-3, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals.

“After losing in qualies and I was booking my flight back home, this is a surprise, for sure,” said Coric. “But in the last two matches, I’ve been feeling like I was back in Marrakech and played really good today. It’s a huge win and is going to mean a lot for me because confidence plays a huge role in my tennis.”

Coric, who moved into the main draw after Richard Gasquet withdrew due to back pain, took advantage of his second chance this week by defeating Mischa Zverev and qualifier Pierre-Hugues Herbert before the win over Murray. He becomes the first lucky loser to reach the quarter-finals in Madrid’s 16-year tournament history.

“Obviously he didn’t play very good today. That was obvious. That’s when I said I’m going to make even more balls, make him play and see what happens,” said Coric. “I didn’t do anything special with my tactics. I was trying to be very boring, just stay with him and try to get some errors from him.”

Coric will next play eighth seed Dominic Thiem, who saved five match points in a thrilling 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(9) victory over Grigor Dimitrov. The Croatian won his lone FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting with Thiem this March at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Miami.

The 20-year-old Croatian has been in fine form this clay-court season, winning his first ATP World Tour title last month in Marrakech by saving five match points in the final against Philipp Kohlschreiber. His run over the past month is a remarkable turnaround after he opened 2017 with a 3-7 record. 

Coric, currently No. 59 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, will move back inside the Top 50 with his run this week. He is currently second in the Emirates ATP Race to Milan, which will determine the seven players who automatically qualify for the Next Gen ATP Finals this November. The eighth spot will be decided with a wild card.

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Murray will head back to the drawing board after what he said was as a disappointing performance. The top seed hit 14 winners to 28 unforced errors and won slightly more than half of his service points (29/52). A finalist last year in Madrid (l. Djokovic), he will have even more pressure on him to defend ATP Emirates Rankings points in Rome and Roland Garros, where he won and finished runner-up last year, respectively.

Although the World No. 1 wasn’t happy with his play, he was full of praise for Coric after the match.

“He serves well and moves extremely well. He never gives matches away. He makes a lot of shots and is very consistent,” said Murray. “If you’re not on your game and he’s moving well, making a lot of balls, he can make it very tough for you.”

The World No. 1 previously expressed disappointment with his serve in Monte-Carlo and Barcelona. It appeared he had righted the ship after not facing any break points in his opening-round win this week against Marius Copil, but today’s result shows the consistency in that shot isn’t there yet.

More: Goffin Tops Raonic

Murray struggled with his serve in the first set, winning just 11 per cent of his second serve points. Coric broke Murray three consecutive times and won the last three games of the set to take the early advantage.

Murray hung tough in the second set, but was unable to find good timing on his backhand wing. Frequently missing when he tried to be aggressive on that side, he was often resigned to hitting high balls or defensive slices that allowed Coric to dominate the rallies. A pair of backhand errors from the top seed handed Coric the lone break of the set at 5-3, and the Croatian comfortably held in the next game to wrap up the win in one hour and 25 minutes.