FINALS PREVIEW: Ten years ago in Madrid, a pair of 19-year-olds born a week apart played for the very first time on the ATP World Tour. The careers of Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray come full circle at Caja Mágica on Sunday when the World No. 1 and World No. 2 contest their 32nd match (Djokovic leads 22-9). Their first encounter was in the Round of 16, but this time the Mutua Madrid Open championship, ATP Masters 1000 title record, and No. 2 ranking are all on the line.

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Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are tied with 28 ATP Masters 1000 titles – most since the series of nine elite events was introduced in 1990. The Serb is on a remarkable run at the best tournaments on tour and against the greatest players in the world. It takes two out of three sets to win a match, but Djokovic has dropped only one of his last 32 sets against Top 10 opponents, a stretch of 14 straight victories. Djokovic has also won four of the last five and nine of the last 13 ATP Masters 1000 titles.

However, Murray has won more Mutua Madrid Open championships than Djokovic, whose lone title in the Spanish capital came five years ago. Murray, the 2008 and 2015 Madrid champion, is coming off straight-set wins over the fifth-ranked Nadal and eighth-ranked Tomas Berdych. Though he is 0-3 against Djokovic on clay, Murray is one of the most improved players on the surface. The Brit had a 63-37 clay-court record with no finals appearances entering the 2015 season. He is 24-2 on clay since then, highlighted by back-to-back titles at Munich and Madrid last May.

Murray needs to win his third Madrid title in order to remain No. 2 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. Should Murray lose in the final, both he and Roger Federer will have 7,525 ranking points. By rule, the tie is broken with the most total points from Grand Slams, the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, and ATP Masters 1000 mandatory tournaments (not including Monte-Carlo). Federer has 6,180 points in the tiebreaker, while Murray would have 6,120 points with a runner-up finish in Madrid.

The doubles final features defending champions Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea against No. 3 seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau. Bopanna and Mergea saved a match point in the semi-finals and have earned all three of their wins this week in a match tiebreaker. Rojer and Tecau, on the other hand, have not dropped a set yet, including a semi-final win over Indian Wells, Miami and Monte-Carlo champions Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut.

Rojer and Tecau are 4-0 overall against Bopanna and Mergea. In their most recent meetings, Rojer and Tecau won 13-11 in the fifth set of the Wimbledon semi-finals and again in the final of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. Neither team has won a title this season, though countrymen Mergea and Tecau joined forces in their native Romania to capture the Bucharest championship on April 25. Bopanna and Rojer partnered that same week and lost in the Barcelona quarter-finals.

Novak Djokovic secured a spot in the Mutua Madrid Open final for the second time, surviving a late rally from Kei Nishikori to prevail 6-3, 7-6(4).

Djokovic will renew his storied rivalry with Andy Murray on Sunday, with a second title at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event on the line. The Serb, who previously triumphed in 2011 (d. Nadal), has now swept through 14 straight matches against fellow Top 10 players, notching 30 of 31 sets during that stretch.

With the roof open on a rainy Saturday evening in the Spanish capital, the 2011 champion escaped early trouble, coming under pressure in his first three service games. Nishikori looked to play first-strike tennis against the World No. 1, claiming 14 of the first 19 baseline points and registering the first 10 winners of the match. The top-seeded Serb saved three break points (at 0/40) to open proceedings and those missed opportunities would prove to be critical for the Japanese.

At 4-3 deuce, Djokovic whipped a forehand that kicked out of Nishikori’s reach and an unforced error would give the Serb the first break of the match. The top seed closed out the first set a game later after 40 minutes. In total, Djokovic dominated rallies under five shots in the opener, capturing 22 of 31.

Nishikori looked to have the upper hand at the start of the second set, striking a sublime acute-angled drop shot winner to hold for 2-1. The tide looked to be turning with a 0/30 edge in the next game, but Djokovic would shut the door and the World No. 1 converted his third break chance in the fifth game to take the lead for good… or so it seemed.

On the doorstep of victory at 5-4 40/0, Djokovic would see his seemingly insurmountable lead evaporate in a shocking turn of events. All three match points would come and go and Nishikori would save a fourth two points later. Djokovic relinquished his first break of the tournament as Nishikori suddenly reeled off 13 of 18 points, pulling ahead 6-5.

But Djokovic would survive in the ensuing tie-break, converting his fifth match point for the victory after one hour and 59 minutes. He fired 22 winners, including five aces, while taking eight off 11 net points. The Serb won 51 points lasting under five shots, to Nishikori’s 33.

Nishikori, runner-up to Rafael Nadal in Madrid in 2011, was bidding to reach a third consecutive final on the ATP World Tour (Miami & Barcelona). Djokovic took an 8-2 lead in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series and will look to extend his 22-9 mark against Murray, exactly 10 years removed from the very first encounter in the Madrid third round.

Different season, same match-up, same result. For the second consecutive year, home favourite Rafael Nadal clashed with rival Andy Murray at the Mutua Madrid Open and once again it was the Scot prevailing in straight sets, 7-5, 6-4.

Despite the defeat, Nadal pointed to positive signs in his game during this European clay-court season that has galvanised the Spaniard. Nadal witnessed his win streak come to a halt at 13, following back-to-back titles at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters and in Barcelona, and the 29 year old looks to that strong run of form as motivation for the coming weeks.

“I think I had another positive week,” the World No. 5 said. “I made it to the semi-finals. I’ve been very consistent every week. This is good news. Today, mentally I was okay. I fought a lot until the end. I tried to look for solutions and I think I did that, but it wasn’t enough.

“I’m competitive. I’m second in the [Emirates ATP Race To London] because I’m competing. But the same way I lost, if you look at what happened out there, I could have won. You have to criticise yourself to be able to do things better. You have to criticise yourself to get better and better.

“I’m on a positive path. I hope to continue on this path. I feel happy competing. I’m comfortable. Also when I train, I train with a lot of joy to continue going this way.”

Nadal will look to cap a dominant five-week stretch on the ATP World Tour when the Spaniard returns to the Internazionali BNL d’Italia next week. The seven-time champion has a tall order ahead of him in Rome, having been drawn into the same quarter as top seed Novak Djokovic, with #NextGen star Nick Kyrgios, Milos Raonic and Gael Monfils also looming large. But the Spaniard says he feels little pressure returning to his happy hunting ground.

“You feel happy when you have less pressure. When you feel good you don’t have so much pressure on you. We still have two tournaments in the clay-court season and I achieved more [Emirates ATP Rankings] points than last year on clay. So this is something that we’ve seen.

“Also, the feeling that I have when I play in the court and the consistency that I’m showing and general level, it’s superior compared to last year’s. In these tournaments, I have been able to win two, and one making it to the semi-finals, so the clay season is great. Let’s try to continue this way and stay with the rhythm.”

Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert’s quest for ATP World Tour Masters 1000 history came to a halt on Saturday at the Mutua Madrid Open. No. 3 seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau took out the No. 1 seeds in straight sets 6-2, 7-6(3) to end the Frenchmen’s 16-match winning streak and advance to the Madrid doubles final.

“We’re really happy to put together another good match. Three in a row this week,” Tecau said. “Now we’ve given ourselves a chance to play the final and fight for the title here in Madrid.”

Rojer/Tecau erased both break points faced and broke the Frenchmen twice to move into their first team ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final. Tecau lost in the Madrid final in 2012 with Robert Lindstedt. Rojer/Tecau also won 86 per cent of their first-serve points. “It’s one of our goals – to win a Masters (1000),” Tecau said.

The Frenchmen were trying to become the first doubles team to win the first four Masters 1000 events in the same year. In the quarter-finals, they already had beaten the last team that came close to the feat, Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan, who lost in the Madrid final in 2014.

Rojer/Tecau will play Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea in Sunday’s final. Rojer/Tecau will be going for their first title of 2016 and their 12^th in the past three years.

Andy Murray will play for his second consecutive Mutua Madrid Open final on Sunday after beating Rafael Nadal 7-5, 6-4 on Saturday. The World No. 2, who broke through against Nadal last year in Madrid to win his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title on clay, will play Novak Djokovic or Kei Nishikori and go for his 12^th Masters 1000 title.

The Brit controlled play for much of the match with a worldly mix of deep groundstrokes and deceptive drop shots. And when he needed to rely on his booming serve, he could. At 2-4 in the second set, Nadal had two break points to crawl his way back into the match against the No. 2 seed. But Murray climbed out of the hole, hitting a service winner to go up 5-2. The Brit hit eight aces and erased 11 of 13 break points faced during the match.

Nadal looked to be making a comeback again when he broke Murray at 3-5 in the second set. But Murray broke back to advance to Sunday’s final.

The two greats, who practiced together last week in Mallorca, have gone back and forth on clay in recent years. Murray beat Nadal in straight sets at last year’s final in Madrid. But at last month’s Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, Nadal got the better of the Brit, coming back from a set down to win. The Spaniard also still leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 17-7.