Dominic Thiem is riding high at the Mutua Madrid Open. Just 24 hours after saving five match points to defeat Grigor Dimitrov in the third round, the eighth seed put in a nearly flawless performance to reach the semi-finals over lucky loser and #NextGenATP Croatian Borna Coric 6-1, 6-4.

“It means a lot because this is a place with great memories for me. It’s where I had my first win over a Top 10 guy and now my first Masters 1000 semi-final is here,” said Thiem. “I was hoping for these results to come, but these tournaments are really strong, so it’s a great achievement.”

The victory puts Thiem in his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semi-final after going 0-4 in his previous quarter-final appearances. He also evens his FedEx ATP Head2Head with Coric at 1-1, gaining revenge from a loss this year at the Miami Open presented by Itau.

The Austrian’s outstanding run on clay this year began in February by taking the title in Rio de Janeiro (d. Carreno Busta), followed by a runner-up showing last week in Barcelona (l. Nadal). Thiem also scored his first victory over a World No. 1 in Barcelona by ousting Andy Murray in the semi-finals.

Next up for Thiem is Pablo Cuevas, who defeated #NextGenATP German Alexander Zverev earlier in the day. Cuevas leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry over Thiem 1-0, but they haven’t played in two years.

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Despite the loss, Coric has plenty of positives to take from this week. He became the first lucky loser to reach the quarter-finals in Madrid’s tournament history, recording the biggest win of his career by defeating Murray in the third round. The Croatian also matched his best result at a Masters 1000 event (2016 Cincinnati). Coric has excelled on clay this year, winning his first ATP World Tour title last month in Marrakech by saving five match points in the final against Philipp Kohlschreiber. 

Thiem was almost perfect in the opening set, hitting 10 winners to just a single unforced error. He dropped only three points on serve, all of which came in the fifth game, and went on a five-game run to grab the early advantage.

Coric put up more resistance in the second set, but the on-court time of six matches in seven days appeared to take their toll on the Croatian. He took a brief medical timeout up 2-1 in the second set to have his right arm worked on. The lengthy game at 3-3 proved to be critical, with Thiem securing the lone break of the set with yet another forehand winner. The Austrian maintained his slight advantage the rest of the way to wrap up the win in 79 minutes.

Top seed Andy Murray could face another early challenge from a #NextGenATP star at next week’s Internazionali BNL d’Italia. After falling to 20-year-old Croatian Borna Coric in Madrid this week, Murray is seeded to meet in-form German Alexander Zverev, the leader of the Emirates ATP Race To Milan, in the third round.

The Rome draw has also thrown up brutal first-round clashes: Juan Martin del Potro, playing just his second match of the clay season, faces 10^th seed Grigor Dimitrov. Nick Kyrgios and Roberto Bautista Agut, the two highest-ranked players not to be seeded, will do battle. And 39-year-old Tommy Haas plays 38-year-old Ivo Karlovic in the oldest-combined match since Vina del Mar in 1982, when Ricardo Cano (30) defeated Luis Ayala (49).

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Murray is in no danger losing his hold on World No. 1 next week but he is defending 1000 points for winning the Rome title last year and soon after will defend 1,200 points for reaching the Roland Garros final last year. (During the grass swing he will defend 2,500 points for his victories last year at Queen’s and Wimbledon.)

Murray routed Zverev 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 in their only meeting, at the Australian Open in 2016. But Zverev has evolved into one of the game’s hottest young stars and is being touted as a future No. 1. This year he has a 21-9 match record, including titles in Munich and Montpellier.

For the third straight clay-court ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal have been drawn in the same half. But second-seeded Djokovic, last year’s finalist, could face a very tough third-round match.

Vying for the chance to play Djokovic are 15^th seed Pablo Carreno Busta and Gilles Simon, who meet in the first round. The winner of that plays the winner of Bautista Agut and Kyrgios, the Aussie powerhouse who beat Djokovic in back-to-back tournaments this year in Acapulco and Indian Wells.

Third seed Stan Wawrinka, chasing just his second match win of the clay swing, will open against the winner of Frenchmen Nicolas Mahut and Benoit Paire, who upset the Swiss in the second round of Madrid this week.

Fourth-seeded Nadal will play the winner of Italian Andreas Seppi and a qualifier in the second round after enjoying an opening-round bye.

Main-draw play in Rome begins Sunday.

Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas produced a moment of brilliance on Friday to turn the tables on #NextGenATP German Alexander Zverev at the Mutua Madrid Open for a place in his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semi-final.

Cuevas was level-headed throughout his 3-6, 6-0, 6-4 victory over 20-year-old Zverev in 90 minutes to set up a Saturday clash against eighth seed Dominic Thiem or lucky loser Borna Coric.

The pair’s first meeting turned in Cuevas’ favour early in the second set, when Zverev served at 0-1, 40/30. Cuevas drew Zverev to the net with a delicate drop shot, only to be drawn to the net himself. Zverev then produced a backhand lob volley that sent the World No. 27 scurrying back to the baseline. Assured at the net, Zverev appeared to be favourite to win the rally. But Cuevas produced a sensational no-look winner that helped to give him an injection of confidence. It carried him to his 15th match win of the season.

Zverev, who had captured two ATP World Tour titles this year at the Open Sud de France (d. Gasquet) and at last week’s BMW Open by FWU (d. Pella), showed no signs of fatigue early on in his eighth match in 10 days.

Zverev competed with great maturity under a closed roof on Court Arantxa Sanchez Vicario to break Cuevas for a 3-1 lead. He closed out the 26-minute set to love with a short forehand crosscourt winner.

But Cuevas refocused and got his reward in the memorable second game with a backhand winner down the line, on his fourth break point opportunity. He hit his spots on serve and maintained good groundstroke depth for errors to creep into Zverev’s game. Cuevas ran through the second set in 28 minutes, losing four of his service points.

The decider was a tighter affair, featuring no breaks of serve until the final game, when mental and physical fatigue caught up with Zverev who dropped his serve to 15.

Cuevas, a three-time reigning champion at the Brasil Open in Sao Paulo, won his fourth straight three-setter of the week (also over Thomaz Bellucci, Nicolas Mahut and Benoit Paire) to improve to a 15-8 mark in 2017.

World No. 19 Zverev, who lost to Nick Kyrgios in the quarter-finals of the Miami Open presented by Itau, is now 21-9 on the season and leads the Emirates ATP Race To Milan, for one of eight spots at the 21-and-under Next Gen ATP Finals from 7-11 November.

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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

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