Forget the “King of Clay”, a nickname that doesn’t truly reflect Rafael Nadal’s mastery of all surfaces during his legendary ATP Tour career. How about “King of Masters”?

Nadal already owns the most ATP Masters 1000 wins in the series’ 30-year history, 380, two better than longtime rival Roger Federer. The Spaniard advanced to his 51^st final at the elite level, one better than Federer’s 50, on Saturday when Gael Monfils withdrew (ankle) from their Coupe Rogers semi-final.

Should Nadal beat Russian Daniil Medvedev in the Montreal final on Sunday, the World No. 2 would win his 35th Masters 1000 crown, extending his all-time lead. Novak Djokovic has the second-most Masters 1000 tites, with 33.

King of Masters, indeed.

But a recounting of Nadal’s pedigree won’t tremble Medvedev, who’s into his first Masters 1000 final and has won eight of his past nine matches. “I won’t be intimidated. I want to win every match I play,” he said.

The World No. 9 has hardly been bothered all week in the French-speaking Canadian city. Medvedev, who trains in France, is sponsored by Lacoste, has a French coach (Gilles Cervara) and speaks French, has been playing as if he’s on home courts and has been embraced as one of Montreal’s own.

“After the match, everybody says, ‘Oh, you speak French, Daniil’. I think this brings the crowd to support me. It’s funny,” he said.

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The 23-year-old had reached only one Masters 1000 semi-final before this week, in April at the clay-court Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters (l. to Lajovic). But hard courts, where his flat backhand can do the most damage, have long been his favourite surface. Medvedev has won all four of his ATP Tour titles on hard court and owns his best winning percentage (66%) of the three surfaces on it.

The Russian, however, has never had a week like this at a Masters 1000 event. Following his run to the Citi Open final last week (l. to Kyrgios), Medvedev dropped only three games against Brit Kyle Edmund, swept two-time ATP Tour titlist Cristian Garin of Chile 6-3, 6-3 and delivered his best show yet against No. 4 Dominic Thiem, dropping only four games.

In the semi-finals against longtime friend Karen Khachanov, Medvedev tightened up serving for the match at 5-4, but he held on to win in straight sets and improve to 8-0 in sets this week.

“It just means that I’m playing better now, that I’m able to beat these top players in two sets. It’s a great achievement,” Medvedev said.

Nadal’s only blemish came in his quarter-final against Italy’s Fabio Fognini, but the top seed and defending champion quickly erased those memories, dropping only three games in the final two sets.

“In general terms [it was] an up-and-down match, but a positive match for me because I played better and better,” Nadal said.

He and Medvedev have never met, marking the second time this season a Masters 1000 final will be the first meeting between the two finalists (Monte-Carlo, Fognini v Lajovic). If Medvedev can get off to his customary fast start, give the Russian a chance, even against the all-time Masters 1000 titles leader.

Nadal, perhaps more so than others, really arrives at top gear after a break of serve, and if Medvedev can keep holding, make yourself comfortable, because the Russian is not lacking belief.

“I’m playing very well right now,” he said. “I believe if I am able to play like this, it’s not going to be easy for Rafa. It’s going to be a big battle.”

Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos played each other in doubles on seven occasions entering the Coupe Rogers, but they had never competed as a team. Pairing up has proven a good idea for the Spanish-Argentine duo in Montreal.

Granollers and Zeballos battled past Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury 7-6(7), 3-6, 10-7 on Saturday to reach the championship match of the season’s sixth ATP Masters 1000 tournament, moving to 4-0 as a tandem. They won 83 per cent of their first-serve points and claimed three crucial return points in the Match Tie-break to advance after one hour and 40 minutes.

The first-time pair has enjoyed plenty of success individually. Granollers, the 2012 Nitto ATP Finals titlist with Marc Lopez, is a 17-time tour-level doubles winner. Zeballos is a 12-time ATP Tour champion, including a triumph with Nikola Mektic at the BNP Paribas Open.

In the final, Granollers and Zeballos will play Dutchmen Robin Haase and Wesley Koolhof, who dismissed Indian Rohan Bopanna and #NextGenATP Canadian Denis Shapovalov 7-6(3), 7-6(7) after one hour and 36 minutes. It is Haase and Koolhof’s second Masters 1000 final as a team this season, as they also made the championship match at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, where they lost to Mektic and Franko Skugor.

Koolhof made his third final at this level this year, finishing runner-up alongside reigning Next Gen ATP Finals champion Stefanos Tsitsipas at the Miami Open presented by Itau. Haase is primarily a singles player, but he has lifted six ATP Tour doubles trophies with four different partners.

The Dutchmen won 80 per cent of their first-serve points, whereas the flashy Bopanna and Shapovalov only managed to claim 69 per cent of their first-serve points.

Eventually, the dominance of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer will end. Not even the all-time greats can escape the clutches of Father Time.

But for how much longer will the ‘Big Three’ rule the tennis world with an iron fist and which players are most likely to break up the party? Asked to contemplate those questions, Andy Murray said to circle your calendar for 2021 and that the disrupters will most likely come from players currently aged 22 or younger.

“I can see something happening in the next couple of years. Maybe the next 12-18 months I don’t quite see it. But in 18 months to two years I think we’ll see some changes up there,” Murray told ATPTour.com.

“I think it will mainly come from the younger ones. That’s not to say that some of the older guys couldn’t potentially win a Slam. I just don’t see one of them becoming dominant. Potentially some of the younger guys get up to the top four or five in the world and stay there for a long period.”

Djokovic, Nadal and Federer have combined to win a staggering 160 ‘Big Titles’, comprising 54 Grand Slams, 95 ATP Masters 1000s and 11 Nitto ATP Finals. Murray was once bracketed in the ‘Big Four’ with the legendary trio, with 14 Masters 1000s, the 2016 year-end No. 1 Ranking and Nitto ATP Finals title, two Olympic singles gold medals and 45 singles titles.

Murray believes that Felix Auger-Aliassime, 19, reigning Next Gen ATP Finals champion Stefanos Tsitsipas, who turns 21 Monday, and Alexander Zverev, 22, are the players most likely to entrench themselves at the top of the game for an extended period.

“I like Felix. I like his game; physically he’s very strong and he looks good mentally,” Murray said. “He’s still young so he’ll need a little time. Tsitsipas has a really nice game; he’s a good athlete and his personality is great. He’s fun to watch. He has an all-round game that allows him to play well on all surfaces, which is important if you want to get up there and stay up there.

“Obviously Zverev has a lot of potential and he’s won the most of the young guys. If you have a few bad months it’s easy for people to forget that and start writing you off. But he’s a young guy who can improve a lot.

“They would be the three right now. But there could be 17-, 18-year-olds out there who I haven’t seen play much who could break through.

“Dominic Thiem has been in Slam finals and is improving all the time. He’s got a great work ethic and a big game. I see him coming through and he could potentially win majors. But in terms of dominating, I think the guys at the top will stay around a little too long for that to happen.”

Murray next week is set to return to singles competition for the first time since his emotional five-set first-round defeat to Roberto Bautista Agut at the Australian Open, after which he underwent a second surgery on his right hip. Murray returned to the ATP Tour in June, when he partnered Feliciano Lopez to the doubles title at Queen’s. Since then he has also played doubles at Eastbourne, Wimbledon, Washington and Montreal.

In Cincinnati he will play Richard Gasquet in the first round. The winner will meet fourth-seeded Thiem.

Read More: Djokovic draws level with Federer on ‘Big Titles’ leaderboard

Thirteenth seed John Isner will look to ignite his North American hard-court swing on Sunday when he kicks off main draw play at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.

Isner will be playing in just his 12^th tournament of the season after missing three months – April through June – because of a broken left foot suffered in the Miami Open presented by Itau final (l. to Federer). The top American returned at Wimbledon, losing in the second round but rebounded quickly by winning his first title of the season on the Newport grass last month.

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Isner is 1-2 so far during the North American hard-court swing, suffering his earliest Atlanta exit yet (second round) and falling in the third round at the Citi Open in Washington, D.C.

The 2013 finalist and 2017 semi-finalist headlines the night session against Serbian Dusan Lajovic, who won his first ATP Tour title last month at the clay-court Plava Laguna Croatia Open Umag. Isner, No. 15 in the ATP Rankings, leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 5-1 and won both of their hard-court meetings, the most recent coming at last year’s US Open.

In the only other main-draw singles match of the day, #NextGenATP Aussie Alex de Minaur, the BB&T Atlanta Open champion, meets three-time ATP Tour titlist Marco Cecchinato of Italy. De Minaur leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 2-1, which includes a straight-sets win at Wimbledon last month.

ORDER OF PLAY – SUNDAY 11 AUGUST 2019
CENTER COURT start 10:00 am
WTA match
WTA match

Not Before 2:00 pm
Alex de Minaur (AUS) vs Marco Cecchinato (ITA)

Not Before 7:00 pm
Dusan Lajovic (SRB) vs [13] John Isner (USA)
David Goffin (BEL) / Hubert Hurkacz (POL) vs Ivan Dodig (CRO) / Filip Polasek (SVK)

GRANDSTAND start 11:00 am
Qualifying – [3] Pablo Carreno Busta (ESP) vs [WC] J. Wolf (USA) 
WTA match
Qualifying – [1] M. Kukushkin (KAZ) vs [12] [Alt] A. Rublev (RUS) 
[5] Pierre-Hugues Herbert (FRA) / Nicolas Mahut (FRA) vs Nikola Mektic (CRO) / Franko Skugor (CRO)

To view the remainder of Sunday’s order of play, click here.

Rafael Nadal moved into his 51st ATP Masters 1000 final without hitting a ball on Saturday at the Coupe Rogers in Montreal.

The top-seeded Spaniard advanced by walkover when Frenchman Gael Monfils, who beat Roberto Bautista Agut earlier Saturday in their rain-postponed quarter-final, pulled out because of an ankle injury.

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Nadal will go for his record-extending 35^th Masters 1000 crown against Russian Daniil Medvedev, who beat Karen Khachanov 6-1, 7-6(6) to make his first Masters 1000 final.

It will be their first FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting. By making the final, Nadal is guaranteed to stay No. 2 in the ATP Rankings when the new standing are released on Monday. Roger Federer will remain at No. 3.

Nadal also will move to first place in the ATP Race To London come Monday. The ATP Rankings tally points from the past 52 weeks, whereas the Race points begin on 1 January and are an indicator of who will finish year-end No. 1.

If there’s one thing Daniil Medvedev has not done this week in Montreal, it’s waste time. The World No. 9 moved past countryman Karen Khachanov 6-1, 7-6(6) on Saturday at the Coupe Rogers, advancing to his first ATP Masters 1000 final without dropping a set.

Despite letting slip a break advantage on two occasions in the second set, including at 5-4 as he tried to serve out the match, Medvedev held his nerve in the tie-break to triumph after one hour and 23 minutes. His victory in the first Masters 1000 semi-final between two Russians will also make Medvedev the top-ranked player from his country on Monday, and he will play for the title against top seed Rafael Nadal.

“I’m playing very well right now. I believe if I am able to play like this, it’s not going to be easy for Rafa,” Medvedev said. “It’s going to be a big battle. I’m hoping that I can pull it out.”

One year ago, Medvedev was only No. 68 in the ATP Rankings, and he needed to qualify in Toronto. But now the Russian is not only inside the Top 10, but he is pressing his claims for a maiden spot at the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held at The O2 in London from 10-17 November.

Medvedev will finish the week in sixth place in the ATP Race To London. He has made four additional finals this year, including in Sofia where he captured the ATP 250 title.

For much of the match, Medvedev dominated his service games with his first serves to avoid much pressure from his compatriot, while forcing Khachanov to come up with something special on his serve with dogged defence. The victor won all but four of his first-serve points (33/37), whereas Khachanov managed to earn just 59 per cent of points on his first delivery.

“I absolutely did not think about the times when we were young. But it is, of course, a very special match. Before the match, I hadn’t thought about that, but I quickly understood it was going to be the match for me to become the top one in Russia,” Medvedev said. “So it was a big match. Both of us, we don’t like to play each other, so we were tense.”

Khachanov double faulted away both of the breaks he conceded in the first set. And at 1-1 in the second set, Medvedev was once again unrelenting, acting like a brick wall a few feet behind the baseline, putting ball after ball deep in the court until Khachanov pushed a forehand into the net to give the eighth seed a set-and-a-break lead.

In the next game, Medvedev hit a stunning tweener before working his way to the net to finish off the point, taking a 40/15 lead, motioning for the crowd’s support for his tremendous play. And suddenly, his level dropped off for the first time in the match, giving the break back to Khachanov. After bouncing back to break for the second time in the set, Medvedev’s nerves showed once again as he failed to serve out the match at 5-4.

Khachanov pushed to force a decider, winning four points in a row in the tie-break from 0/2 down. But Medvedev did not go away, clinching the match when one of his backhands bounced off the tape and trickled just over the net, not leaving enough time for Khachanov to get there.

This was just Medvedev’s second Masters 1000 semi-final. Earlier in the year, he was upset by Serbian Dusan Lajovic in the last four of the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. This time, he faced a more experienced opponent in Khachanov, who defeated four Top 10 opponents en route to the Rolex Paris Masters title last year. But too often, Khachanov’s powerful arsenal was not enough to break through Medvedev’s fortress in rallies.

Medvedev’s opponent in the final, Nadal, advanced after Frenchman Gael Monfils withdrew due to an ankle sprain. The Russian has never played the legendary lefty.

“Of course it’s extra special. I played Novak and Roger a few times, both of them already. It’s different, I have to say. Yeah, there is some extra pressure. At the same time it’s fun to play them because, well, that’s what I have been working for all my life,” Medvedev said. “I won’t be intimidated. I want to win every match I play… hopefully I can do it tomorrow.”

Did You Know?
Medvedev, who hails from Moscow, has felt at home this week in Montreal. The World No. 9 speaks French, and he has done various interviews and interactions in the language throughout the week.

Throughout the second and third sets of his Coupe Rogers quarter-final, Gael Monfils appeared to be slowing down, potentially hampered by a slide to his left early in the second set. It appeared to be a matter of time before Roberto Bautista Agut — who needed a victory to crack the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings for the first time — would seize control of the match.

But Monfils battled hard and saved his best tennis for last, playing a sensational final-set tie-break to beat Bautista Agut 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(2) on Saturday, advancing to the semi-finals in Montreal after two hours and 25 minutes. The Frenchman will return to Court Central later Saturday evening to face top seed and defending champion Rafael Nadal in the last four.

This is Monfils’ first ATP Masters 1000 semi-final since 2016, when he made the last four in Toronto, succumbing against Novak Djokovic. The 32-year-old won five fewer points compared to Bautista Agut, but he finished off his victory with a massive forehand winner off a short ball, lifting his arms in celebration with a smile across his face.

As the match wore on, the rally patterns became increasingly similar, with Bautista Agut attacking with his forehand from the backhand side of the court as Monfils hung in there defensively and tried to make things uncomfortable for the Spaniard.

But when it mattered most, Monfils significantly upped his aggression, blasting away from the baseline to win his first two return points in the deciding-set tie-break. He sprinted to a 5/0 lead, which he did not relinquish. Monfils saved eight of the 10 break points he faced in the match.

The World No. 20 advanced to at least the semi-finals in three of his first four tournaments this year, highlighted by a triumph at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam. This is Monfils’ first trip to the last four since that stretch.

Nadal leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head series against Monfils 14-2, with the Frenchman’s most recent victory against the legendary lefty coming at 2012 Doha. Ten of Nadal’s wins in this rivalry have come in straight sets. 

Did You Know?
Monfils has reached three Masters 1000 finals, with his most recent coming three years ago at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.