Although Rafael Nadal has been garnering the most attention so far this clay-court season, World No. 1 Andy Murray expects to generate headlines of his own at the Mutua Madrid Open.

The top seed will open his campaign against a wild card in Guillermo Garcia-Lopez or Marius Copil. After defeating Rafael Nadal to win the 2015 Madrid title and finishing runner-up last year to Novak Djokovic, he believes the environment at La Caja Mágica offers everything he needs to have another big week at this event.

“It’s a great city, beautiful city. The venue is great for the fans. You have some really good courts. There’s lots of fans watching the practices,” said Murray. “We have a lot of space in the gym, good food. They put on a really good event for all of the players. They’re always improving things each year and do a very good job.”

After being limited to one match in six weeks due to a right elbow injury, Murray is rounding into form on clay. The World No. 1 suffered a third-round loss to Albert Ramos-Vinolas at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, but avenged the loss one week later at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell en route to a semi-final finish. Following a week of rest and training at home, he feels even stronger heading into Madrid.

“Barcelona went really well for me. I got three matches in three days. I had the long, three-hour match with Albert Ramos-Vinolas on the Friday. I actually felt pretty good coming out to play again the next day and played some decent stuff there,” said Murray. “Practice here the last few days has been very good. I’m happy with how I’m playing. I’m starting to move better and feel like I served well the last few days, which is an important part of my game.

I served well last year and my results improved a lot because of that. Obviously haven’t served so well in Barcelona and Monte-Carlo,” he added. “It’s not easy at this level to win matches if you’re getting broken a lot. Hopefully I serve a bit better this week.”

Murray also acknowledged that second seed and defending champion Djokovic is in a similar situation returning from a right elbow injury. The Serbian surprised many fans by announcing he had split with his entire team, but the Brit said the decision was understandable.

“It’s difficult traveling with the same person or same people for 10, 11, 12 years. It’s very rare nowadays to see teams or coaching relationships last that long, just because of how intense it is. A lot of traveling, a lot of time away from families. You’re spending a lot of hours in the day together,” said Murray. “I haven’t to spoken to him about that, but maybe Novak just felt like it was time for a change.

“But rather than seeing it as a negative thing, it’s been obviously a very successful relationship he’s had with all of those guys. I’m sure they parted on very good terms,” said Murray. “We’ll see what Novak’s next moves are.”

For Murray, his next moves are solely centered around trying to win a second Madrid title. After an outstanding 2016 clay season that also included a title in Rome and runner-up finish at Roland Garros, he believes there’s no reason why those results can’t be matched or replicated.

“Expectations are high. I want to do well the next few weeks. In many ways, it’s the most important part of the year. There’s a lot of big tournaments that come very quickly, one after the other,” said Murray. “I’m motivated and looking forward to it.”

Top seed Pablo Carreno Busta finished off a flawless week at the Millennium Estoril Open by taking the title with a 6-2, 7-6(5) victory over third seed Gilles Muller.

The Spaniard picks up his first ATP World Tour title of 2017 after finishing runner-up this February in Rio de Janeiro (l. Thiem). Carreno Busta didn’t drop a set in navigating through a difficult draw that included former Top 5 player Tommy Robredo, defending champion Nicolas Almagro, fourth seed David Ferrer and Muller. He earns 250 Emirates ATP Rankings points and a cheque for €85,945.

Despite the loss, Muller can be satisfied with reaching his first clay-court final. The 33-year-old Luxembourg native is enjoying his best year on tour, winning his first ATP World Tour title in Sydney and reaching a career-high Emirates ATP Ranking of No. 27 the following month. He picks up 150 Emirates ATP Rankings points and a cheque for €45,265.

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Carreno Busta and Muller traded service holds in the first two games of the match, but the Spaniard quickly found his footing while Muller struggled for form. The top seed went on a five-game run after Muller gave away a break at 2-2 with a backhand into the net and a double break at 2-4 after sending a forehand wide. Carreno Busta comfortably wrapped up the set on serve after the third seed sent another forehand wide. 

But Muller settled down in the second set and produced the high quality tennis he’d shown all week. Both players held serve throughout to force a tie-break. Carreno Busta raced to a 5/2 lead, but Muller leveled the score with a gorgeous drop shot winner. Carreno Busta earned a match point at 6/5 and converted when Muller sent a backhand volley long after one hour and 22 minutes.

Both men are scheduled to compete this week at the Mutua Madrid Open. Muller takes on Tommy Haas, while Carreno Busta squares off against Benoit Paire. 

Roman Jebavy and Jiri Vesely did not put a wrong foot during Sunday’s doubles final at the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open. The Czech duo were ruthless in completing a 6-0, 6-0 victory over wild cards Tuna Altuna and Alessandro Motti for their first team title.

Jebavy and Vesely needed just 41 minutes to lift the trophy, saving all three break points faced, while converting six of nine of their own. It was the first double bagel in an ATP World Tour final since 2010, when Lukasz Kubot and Oliver Marach did not drop a game in winning the Acapulco title.

“We definitely didn’t expect to win the final with a score like that,” said Vesely. “But we played great, didn’t miss many returns and put every ball back. We put the pressure on their side and played great all week. We deserved to win.

“After losing early in the singles, I was even more motivated to go far in the doubles. I know Roman for a long time. I think we did a really good job and hopefully we can keep it up.”

For 23-year-old Vesely, it was his second ATP World Tour doubles title, having prevailed with another countryman – Frantisek Cermak – in Moscow in 2014. Jebavy, 27, claimed his first career doubles crown on the ATP World Tour.

“We played really good all week,” said Jebavy. “We are happy to do it in Istanbul.”

The Czech tandem, who previously teamed for the Prague Challenger title in 2014, entered the week with an 0-3 record together in tour-level events. They claim 250 Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings points and split € 23,780.

Altuna and Motti, meanwhile, were teaming together for the first time and earned all three wins in Match Tie-breaks to reach the final. The Turkish-Italian pair claim 150 Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings points and split € 12,500 in prize money.

In some ways, not much has changed for Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic since the 2016 Mutua Madrid Open.

A year later, both men still sit atop the Emirates ATP Rankings, and this year, just like last, the Scot and the Serbian are among the favourites to win the season’s second ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament on clay.

But in other ways, much is different for the World No. 1 and No. 2, as both players head to this week’s Mutua Madrid Open seeking similar reboots to their 2017 campaigns if they plan to keep their comfortable advantages atop the Emirates ATP Rankings.

Djokovic, the 2016 Madrid champion, will be defending 1,000 Emirates ATP Rankings points, and Murray, last year’s finalist, could see 600 Emirates ATP Rankings points roll off.

Both players also will be looking to regain their sky-high confidence levels that have seemingly been missing thus far in 2017. Djokovic started the year by beating Murray in Doha for his 67^th career title but has struggled since, failing to reach a semi-final in his four other tournaments. Murray backed up his Doha final run with a title in Dubai but hasn’t reached another final since that February crown.

But Madrid might be just the spot for their restarts to take place. Last year, Murray battled Djokovic for three sets in the Madrid final before avenging his loss to the Serb one week later in the Rome final. Djokovic then had the final say on clay, beating Murray in the Roland Garros final.

“I think the week as a whole and the clay season so far has been positive for me. I just need to try to find the way for whole weeks and not drop my intensity at certain moments,” Murray said after the Madrid final.

In 2016, Djokovic had his greatest year on the red dirt, and that run started in Madrid, where he won his 29^th Masters 1000 crown and his 64^th tour-level title, tying Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras on the all-time titles list. From there, Djokovic made the final in Rome and completed his career Grand Slam with his first Roland Garros title.

Should Djokovic and Murray slip in Madrid, look to the “King of Clay” to continue making up ground in the Emirates ATP Rankings. World No. 5 Rafael Nadal has been his usual stellar self on the red dirt so far this year. The left-hander won his 10^th Monte-Carlo and Barcelona titles last month. He has won the Madrid title four times, best among the “Big Four” of Murray, Djokovic, Roger Federer and himself.

The Spaniard has thousands of points to gain during the next five weeks as well, after his injury-shortened clay-court stretch last season. In 2016, Nadal reached the semi-finals in Madrid, the quarter-finals in Rome and withdrew before his third-round match in Roland Garros because of a left-wrist injury.

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The TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open will play host to an all-Top 10 final clash on Sunday, as World No. 6 Milos Raonic duels with World No. 8 Marin Cilic.

Raonic set their third FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting after dismissing Viktor Troicki 6-2, 6-3 in just 66 minutes. The top-seeded Canadian will appear in his first clay-court final, having not dropped serve all week in Istanbul. He is bidding for his ninth ATP World Tour title and first since lifting the trophy to open the 2016 season in Brisbane.

“I’ve come back from many injuries, so I know how to find my level,” said Raonic, who is competing in his first tournament since withdrawing from Miami in March with a hamstring injury. “It took me a few matches to find it, but I think that I’m moving more in the right direction to getting to my best level.

“Today, I had nothing to lose by being aggressive on return. I knew I would hold my serve and I haven’t lost it during the tournament, so why not try something different when returning. I found my rhythm early and kept going as the match went on.”

Raonic and Cilic split their two previous encounters, with the Canadian prevailing in Valencia 2011 and the Croatian exacting revenge in Indian Wells 2013. 

Cilic overcame Diego Schwartzman’s comeback bid in Saturday’s first semi-final, battling past the defending champion 6-1, 7-6(7). The big-hitting Croatian, who celebrated his 400th tour-level match win on Friday, advanced to his first final on the ATP World Tour this year. He will seek his first clay-court crown since 2012 in Umag.

“I’m definitely very excited for the final tomorrow,” said Cilic. “It’s something I was looking forward to at the beginning of the week. I’m really happy with my tennis and hope I can continue with great tennis tomorrow.”

Cilic converted five of 12 break chances during the one-hour and 39-minute affair, but it was far from straightforward for the World No. 8. A dogged Schwartzman looked to replicate his comeback heroics from a year ago in the Istanbul final, when he battled back from a set and a break down to defeat Grigor Dimitrov. Cilic surged to a 6-1, 4-0 lead on Saturday, behind great depth and power from his forehand wing. But his Argentine opponent recovered both breaks in the second set and would draw level once again when the Croatian served for the match at 5-4. 

Second seed Cilic would stay the course in the ensuing tie-break, turning aside three set points and eventually sealing the victory on his first match point when a Schwartzman backhand found the net. It was the first meeting between 6’6″ Cilic and 5’7″ Schwartzman, who falls to 0-11 against Top 10 opponents.

“It was an amazing match,” Cilic added. “The first set and a half I was playing amazing tennis, but things turned around a bit. I started hitting some unforced errors and Diego played much better. Suddenly I was down 6-5 and it definitely wasn’t easy. I found a way and that’s the most important thing in the end.”

Wild Card Duo Reach Doubles Final
The unseeded wild card team of Tuna Altuna and Alessandro Motti will look to cap a dream week in Istanbul after reaching the final on Saturday. The Turkish-Italian pair defeated Antonio Sancic and Adil Shamasdin 3-6, 6-1, 10-5 and will face Jiri Vesely and Roman Jebavy for the title. Altuna, No. 311 in the Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings, and No. 148 Motti are teaming up for the first time this week.