Roger Federer is back on clay.

The Swiss superstar is set to compete on the red dirt for the first time since 2016 Rome next week at the Mutua Madrid Open, an ATP Masters 1000 tournament. The 37-year-old, who recently triumphed in Miami, had his first clay-court hit of the season on 15 April, and his first practice at the Caja Magica on Friday.

Federer has long enjoyed success in Madrid, winning the title three times. In 2006, he lifted the trophy when the tournament was played indoors on hard courts, and he also was victorious on clay in 2009 and 2012. The 101-time tour-level champion holds a 35-8 record at the event, reaching the final five times. He also owns an 8-5 record here against opponents inside the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings.

The World No. 4 will be the fourth seed at the second clay-court Masters 1000 tournament of the season. Federer will learn his draw on Saturday at 11:30am local time.

– Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that Federer was World No. 3 and would be the third seed in Madrid. Federer will be seeded fourth in Madrid. He will rise to World No. 3 on Monday when he passes Alexander Zverev, who drops the 250 points he earned 12 months ago by winning the 2018 Munich title.

Stefanos Tsitsipas is through to the Millennium Estoril Open semi-finals for the second consecutive year after beating Portuguese qualifier Joao Domingues 7-6(3), 6-4 in one hour and 47 minutes on Friday.

Tsitsipas recovered from 3-5 down in the first set against the conqueror of Australians Alex de Minaur and John Millman this week, then held at set point on Domingues’ serve at 6/5, 30/40 and later broke clear midway through the tie-break. After three successive service breaks from 3-3 in the second set, the Greek wrapped up his 21st match win of the season.

The 20-year-old continues his fine season, having reached his first Grand Slam championship semi-final at the Australian Open (l. to Nadal) in January and picked up his second ATP Tour title at the Open 13 Provence (d. Kukushkin) the following month. He will next face fourth-seeded Belgian David Goffin or Malek Jaziri of Tunisia on Saturday.

Later today, third seed Gael Monfils meets Spanish qualifier Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and eighth-seeded American Frances Tiafoe plays Uruguayan lucky loser Pablo Cuevas during the evening session.

How much do you know about the Mutua Madrid Open, the fourth ATP Masters 1000 tennis tournament of the 2019 season?

You may be aware that Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic are all former champions, but do you know which of these players has an undefeated record in Madrid finals? Do you know which three players have won the Madrid title on both hard and clay courts? We test your knowledge in this quiz! 

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Joao Sousa made Portuguese history last year by winning the Millennium Estoril Open, his home tournament. But the defending champion will not retain his trophy, with fourth seed David Goffin ousting Sousa 6-3, 6-2 on Thursday.

The 2017 Nitto ATP Finals runner-up, competing in Estoril for the first time, is into his second ATP Tour quarter-final of the season (Marseille SF), where he will face Tunisian Malek Jaziri, who defeated Argentine Leonardo Mayer 7-6(2), 6-1.

The former World No. 7 struggled in 2018 due to injury — a freak accident in Rotterdam leading to an eye injury, and an elbow injury at the end of the season — but the Belgian will take confidence from his performance against defending champion Sousa. Goffin won 51 per cent of first-serve return points and broke the Portuguese’s serve six times en route to his 80-minute victory.

Goffin will look to avenge a three-set loss against Jaziri from Shenzhen in 2016, which is their only previous FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting. The winner could potentially face top seed and reigning Nitto ATP Finals champion Stefanos Tsitsipas, who will play home favorite Joao Domingues in the last eight.

In a battle of lucky losers, Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas defeated Italian Filippo Baldi 6-2, 7-5 in one hour and 28 minutes. Cuevas will face the winner of eighth seed Frances Tiafoe and Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka.

Did You Know?
It is the second straight week on the ATP Tour that a player has lost in the final round of qualifying, beaten his same opponent in the first round of the main draw, and continued onto the quarter-finals. Cuevas lost to Italian Salvatore Caruso in Estoril qualifying before beating him and then Baldi. Last week in Barcelona, Nicolas Jarry lost to Marcel Granollers, avenged that defeat and reached the quarter-finals.

Dominic Thiem won the biggest clay-court title of his career, Roger Federer climbed the ATP Race To London and the clay-court ATP Masters 1000 season kicked off at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, which brought plenty of surprises. ATPTour.com remembers five of the most-read stories from the month of April.

1. Thiem Hands Nadal First-Ever Barcelona SF, 27 April
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Dominic Thiem stuck to his aggressive game plan against Rafael Nadal to beat the 11-time Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell champion 6-4, 6-4 on Saturday and reach the ATP 500 final.

It’s the fourth time in as many years Thiem has beaten Nadal on clay, and the first time Nadal has lost in the semi-finals or finals of his home tournament. The Spaniard had been 22-0 in matches and 46-1 in sets during Barcelona semi-finals and finals.

But Thiem, who was the only player to beat Nadal on clay in 2017 and 2018, played fearlessly once more against the top seed, pinning the Spaniard behind the baseline and pounding inside-out forehands. He joined Novak Djokovic as the only players to have beaten Nadal on clay four times.

“I’m always super proud if I beat him because he’s the best player ever on this surface, and it’s always very special to beat him here on clay. We always had great matches in the past, and also today was very good and I was more lucky today and I got the win,” Thiem said.

2. Federer Passes Djokovic For Lead In ATP Race To London, 1 April 
Age is just a number, right?

It certainly seems that way for 37-year-old Roger Federer. Thanks to his victory at the Miami Open presented by Itau, Federer now leads the ATP Race To London, taking a 55-point lead over second-placed Novak Djokovic.

Entering the ‘March Masters’ — the first two ATP Masters 1000 tournaments of the year in Indian Wells and Miami — Federer sat in ninth place in the Race with 680 points, having just moved up 39 spots thanks to his triumph at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, an ATP 500 event. The Swiss star has made a giant leap since, first earning 600 points for his runner-up showing in the California desert and then adding 1,000 points on Sunday after lifting his 28th Masters 1000 title in Miami.

3. Fognini Beats Lajovic To Win Monte-Carlo Title, 21 April
Fabio Fognini became the first Italian to win an ATP Masters 1000 title on Sunday at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, defeating Dusan Lajovic 6-3, 6-4 in one hour and 38 minutes.

“I’m really, really happy. Nothing to say,” Fognini said. “I have to keep calm, maybe take a shower, relax, and think about this because it’s something incredible.”

The 13th seed converted four of five break points to become the lowest seeded player to lift the trophy since fellow No. 13 seed Gustavo Kuerten’s title run in 1999. Fognini will rise to a career-high No. 12 when the latest ATP Rankings are published on Monday.

“I just feel happy because I won a big tournament that was always my goal in my career,” Fognini said. “I think everybody, when you’re growing up and you start and you decide to play tennis, you are dreaming to win a big tournament. We are talking about a Masters [1000].”

4. Djokovic, Nadal Face Challenging Monte-Carlo Draws, 12 April
The old adage of “one match at a time” couldn’t apply more heavily to this year’s Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters draw. While some fans may be looking ahead to a championship clash between top seed Novak Djokovic and second seed Rafael Nadal, their draws have plenty of obstacles to clear once main draw action starts on Sunday in the first clay-court ATP Masters 1000 event of the year.

“This has always been a very special place for me,” said Nadal during the draw ceremony. “I watched all of the great champions here as a kid, so it was always a dream for me to be here.”

5. Federer, Djokovic React To ATP Finals Moving To Turin, 24 April
The announcement that Turin, Italy, will host the ATP Finals from 2021-2025 has been met with excitement from the biggest names in tennis. Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Kevin Anderson, Borna Coric and Fabio Fognini all expressed their support for the year-end championships moving to Pala Altipour Stadium, Italy’s biggest indoor sporting arena.

“Exciting new chapter for the ATP Tour,” wrote Federer on Facebook. Djokovic, World No. 1 and President of the ATP Player Council, said in a statement that the ATP Finals is “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.”

The month of April kicked off the main clay-court season, and with it, a flurry of hot shots. Who hit the best shot in April: Rafael Nadal, Dominic Thiem, Laslo Djere or Dusan Lajovic?

Watch them all above and vote now here.

Rafael Nadal has arrived at the Mutua Madrid Open, where he will aim to extend his record to six titles at the ATP Masters 1000 event.

The Caja Magica has long been a successful setting for the home favourite, who owns more match wins at the tournament, with 51, than any other player. Nadal has won a clay-court title in each of the past 15 seasons dating back to his first victory in Sopot in 2004, and he is trying to capture his first trophy of 2019 after semi-final showings in Monte-Carlo and Barcelona.

It will be a field full of superstars in Madrid featuring Nadal, World No. 1 Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer, who is competing on clay for the first time since 2016 Rome. Nadal owns a 10-5 record against Top 10 opponents in Madrid, and he will look to add to that total this year as the second seed.

Watch One Of Nadal’s Best Hot Shots From Madrid: