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.

SEMI-FINAL PREVIEW: No. 5 seed Rafael Nadal and No. 2 seed Andy Murray will meet on Saturday in a rematch of the 2015 Mutua Madrid Open final and for a spot in the 2016 final. Nadal is on a 13-match winning streak, coming off consecutive clay-court titles at ATP Masters 1000 Monte-Carlo and Barcelona. He is also 7-1 on clay and 17-6 overall against Murray, including a three-set win in Monte-Carlo on April 16. Nadal’s lone clay-court loss to Murray came at the Caja Mágica one year ago, when the Brit was not broken in his 63 62 championship victory.

Murray needs to win his third Madrid title this week in order to remain No. 2 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. Should Nadal capture his fifth Madrid championship, he would pass Guillermo Vilas with an Open Era-record 50th title on clay and Novak Djokovic with a record 29th ATP Masters 1000 title. Djokovic, however, is still in the hunt for his second Madrid crown, which would break his ATP Masters 1000 title tie with Nadal. The World No. 1 is on a six-match winning streak against his semi-final opponent on Saturday, 2014 Madrid finalist Kei Nishikori. Djokovic has also swept 13 straight matches against other Top 10 players, claiming 29 of 30 sets during that stretch.

In the doubles semi-finals, Nicolas Mahut and Marcelo Melo continue their race for No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings. If Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert defeat Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau, then Melo and Ivan Dodig lose to Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea, Mahut will become the 49th doubles No. 1 on Monday. If the Frenchmen fall on Saturday, Melo will reclaim the No. 1 ranking even if he and Dodig are defeated by the defending champions Bopanna and Mergea. If Mahut and Herbert meet Melo and Dodig for the title on Sunday, the winner will be No. 1.

Mahut and Herbert are on a 15-match winning streak with ATP Masters 1000 titles at Indian Wells, Miami and Monte-Carlo. They are bidding to become the first doubles team or singles player to sweep the first four ATP Masters 1000 tournaments in a calendar year. Individually, Mahut is on a 19-match winning streak that includes his Rotterdam championship alongside Vasek Pospisil.

A dominant Novak Djokovic improved to 7-0 in his FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry against Milos Raonic with a 6-3, 6-4 quarter-final victory at the Mutua Madrid Open on Friday.

The Serb remains on track to win a record-breaking 29th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title and will face Kei Nishikori on Saturday. Djokovic has won his past 13 matches against Top 10 players and has only dropped one of 30 sets in that span.

“One of the keys of the match was getting as many returns back in play as possible,” Djokovic said. “I knew that before I stepped on the court that I should not give him too many free points on his serve. That’s where the big servers get a lot of confidence.

“I returned exceptionally well. Every single player, especially big servers, have their patterns when it’s close. But sometimes it’s just instinct. It’s just anticipation, trying to be in the right balance and looking at the toss.”

Raonic, who was broken in his first three matches, only missed three first serves (18/21) in the first set. However, Djokovic neutralised Raonic’s power and converted on the only break point of the opening set to improve to 16-1 in sets against the towering Canadian.

The top-ranked player in the Emirates ATP Rankings reasserted his control over the match early in the second set, breaking Raonic for a second time after the changeover. Raonic raised his level and held three break points as Djokovic served for the match at 5-4 in the second set, but ultimately succumbed in one hour and 44 minutes.

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are on a quarter-final collision course at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, set to begin on Sunday in Rome.

Between them, Djokovic and Nadal have won the past 11 editions of this ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament, held at the Foro Italico. Since 2005, Nadal has lifted the trophy seven times, with Djokovic winning the trophy the past two years to add to his successes in 2008 and 2011.

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In what is arguably the toughest quarter of the draw, the 28-year-old Djokovic will open his campaign against a qualifier and in the third round could face 14^th seed Gael Monfils, who has made a career-best start to the season. Nadal is set to meet either Munich champion Philipp Kohlschreiber or a qualifier in his first match and then could come up against 10^th seed Milos Raonic or Nick Kyrgios.

Third seed Roger Federer is also slated in the top half of the draw as the Swiss looks to make a successful return to action after being forced out of Madrid with a back injury. The 34-year-old Federer is looking to claim the elusive Rome crown, having finished runner-up four times, most recently last year against Djokovic.

Federer faces a tough opening test against either Grigor Dimitrov or Next Generation star Alexander Zverev. Possible third-round opponents for Federer include Dominic Thiem, winner of 29 matches thus far in 2016, or Joao Sousa, who gave Nadal a stern test in the Madrid quarter-finals on Friday.

Sixth seed Kei Nishikori rounds out the top half of the draw. The Japanese, who is through to the Madrid semi-finals this weekend, is set to face Teymuraz Gabashvili or Viktor Troicki in the second round before a potential clash with 11^th seed Richard Gasquet.

Second seed Andy Murray headlines the bottom half of the draw. The Scot is still in contention in Madrid, where he faces Nadal in the semi-finals on Saturday in the hopes of winning his first title of the season this week. Murray defeated Tomas Berdych in the quarter-finals on Friday and is again pitted in the same quarter as the Czech in Rome.

But first, Murray will open against either Next Generation star Borna Coric or a qualifier, before the possibility of Roberto Bautista Agut in the third round. Berdych begins against Albert Ramos-Vinolas or Sam Querrey and could meet Jack Sock or David Goffin in the third round.

Reigning Roland Garros champion Stan Wawrinka is looking to find his form after early exits in Monte-Carlo and Madrid. The fourth-seeded Swiss, who reached the Rome final in 2008 (l. to Djokovic), faces Benoit Paire or Bernard Tomic after a first-round bye and is seeded to meet No. 16 Kevin Anderson in the third round, though the South African opens against Feliciano Lopez.

No. 7 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and No. 9 David Ferrer are potential quarter-final opponents for Wawrinka. 

Third seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau reached the semi-finals of the Mutua Madrid Open as they edged seventh seeds Alexander Peya and Nenad Zimonjic 7-6(5), 7-6(2) on Friday at the Caja Magica.

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“It was an extremely difficult match with different conditions as we played with the roof closed,” said Rojer. “But we managed to play some good points in the crucial moments in the tie-breaks and that was the difference.”

After three successive opening-round losses together, Rojer and Tecau are through to their first semi-final since February in Rotterdam. They are bidding to reach their first final since lifting the trophy at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London at the end of 2015.

Standing in the way of the Dutch/Romanian duo is the hottest doubles team of 2016. Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut are two wins away from a historic feat after rallying to down Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan 3-6, 7-6(4), 10-8 to reach the final four.

Herbert/Mahut, now 17-2 on the year, have swept the first three ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events of 2016 – the BNP Paribas Open (d. Pospisil/Sock), the Miami Open presented by Itau (d. Klaasen/Ram) and the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters (d. Murray/Soares). No doubles team has won the first four ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events in the same year.

Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo teamed to eliminate Vasek Pospisil and Jack Sock 6-3, 6-4 in the quarter-finals. Melo and Mahut are in contention to take over the top position in the Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings from Jamie Murray. Melo is guaranteed to reclaim top spot from Murray, who displaced the Brazilian almost five weeks ago, if Mahut does not advance to the final.