DAY 6 PREVIEW: The quarter-finals on Friday at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia are headlined by three of the Big Four: Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal. Djokovic and Nadal meet for the 49th time, the most in the Open Era. They have combined to win the last 11titles in Rome.

In the second match on, No. 12 seed David Goffin looks for his first win (0-3) against Murray, who is appearing in the Rome quarter-finals for the third time in the last six years. Goffin is coming off a 60 60 win over No. 8 Tomas Berdych on Thursday, his third career Top 10 win (3-26). The 25-year-old Belgian is back in the quarter-finals for the second straight year. Murray, who is 26-3 on clay in 2015-16, will return to No. 2 in the Emirates ATP Rankings on Monday. He is trying to reach the semi-finals here for the first time since 2011.                                       

In the highly-anticipated third match on, four-time Rome champion Djokovic brings a 25-23 head-to-head record (6-14 on clay) against seven-time Rome winner Nadal. Djokovic has won the last six meetings and 13 sets (10 of last 11 matches, 22-4 sets). Nadal’s last win came in the final of 2014 Roland Garros. This is their sixth meeting in Rome (Nadal leads 3-2) and earliest meeting here since the quarter-finals in 2007. Djokovic, who has won 15 straight matches against Top 10 opponents (33-2 in sets), is the all-time leader with 29 career ATP Masters 1000 titles followed by Nadal with 28. Djokovic is appearing in the quarter-finals or better here for the 10^th consecutive year. He’s won his last 12 matches in Rome and is 35-2 on the season. Nadal leads the ATP World Tour this year with an 19-3 clay court record, winning 15 of his past 16 matches. This is the Spaniard’s 11^th quarter-finals in Rome in 12 appearances. He is 9-1 in quarter-final matches here.

In the evening session, No. 13 seed Dominic Thiem and No. 6 Kei Nishikori meet for the second time. Nishikori won the previous meeting 76 75 in the first round of Halle last June.  The 22-year-old Thiem, who is the second-youngest player in the Top 20 Emirates ATP Rankings at No. 15, is appearing in his second career ATP Masters 1000 quarter-finals (2015 Miami). He is the first Austrian to reach the quarter-finals in Rome since Thomas Muster won the title in 1996. He comes in with a 32-9 match record on the season (16-4 on clay), the second-most match wins behind Djokovic (35). Nishikori is appearing in the quarter-finals for the second straight year and this is the Japanese star’s fourth ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final in five tournaments this season.

On Grandstand, French lucky loser Lucas Pouille squares off with Argentine Juan Monaco for the third time (tied 1-1). Pouille, who is 12-4 in his last five tournaments after a 2-5 start, is the first lucky loser to reach the quarter-finals in Rome since Alberto Martin in 2005. Pouille, appearing in his first ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final, will crack the Top 50 in the Emirates ATP Rankings for the first time next week around No. 37. Monaco is coming off a three-set win over World No. 4 Stan Wawrinka, his highest ranked win since 2010 Valencia (d. No. 4 Murray). Monaco, who is ranked No. 114, is appearing in the quarter-finals here for the first time since 2009. He is trying to reach his first ATP Masters 1000 semi-final since 2012 Miami.

In an early candidate for shot of the year, Blaz Rola produced a stunning behind-the-back winner during his second-round match on Thursday against Nikoloz Basilashvili at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Heilbronn, Germany.

Serving at 1-2 in the second set, a strong backhand from Basilashvili left Rola flicking his racquet behind his back in desperation. His shot landed just over the net, producing an improbable drop shot winner that left the crowd laughing in approval.

“It’s something that me and my coach have been working on for a couple of weeks,” Rola joked. “Nothing was really going through my mind because the ball was coming in so fast. I just wanted to make contact and this was the only way. It was a great shot, but too bad it didn’t win me the match.”

Rola narrowly lost the match to Basilashvili, 6-7(4), 6-3, 7-6(5). Basilashvili will next play the winner of the match between Carlos Berlocq and Jozef Kovalik.

After several frustrating years battling injuries, Florian Mayer is finally healthy and ready to make a run back up the Emirates ATP Rankings.

The 32-year-old missed more than seven months following last year’s US Open because of a torn right adductor tendon. He returned to the tour last month and, perhaps surprisingly, has shown no signs of rust. In just his third tournament back at this week’s $75,000 ATP Challenger Tour event in Heilbronn, Germany, Mayer upset No. 2 seed Horacio Zeballos in the opening round before defeating #NextGen star Frances Tiafoe in a marathon second-round match on Wednesday.

“This is the one of the best Challengers I’ve ever taken part in,” said Mayer. “Everything is super-organised, the courts are fast and it’s good preparation for Roland Garros.”

In addition to his most recent injury woes, Mayer also missed more than a year on tour due to a hip injury before returning in April 2015. Although he finds the rehab process frustrating, he admitted that it’s taught him patience that will serve him well in his comeback.

“The rehab took a long time, but the important thing was to build my strength slowly,” said Mayer. “I started with cycling and small amounts of running, then started practising again last month before my first tournament back.”

Although Mayer has competed sparsely on the ATP Challenger Tour in recent years, he’s enjoyed great success whenever he has. He’s won 11 ATP Challenger Tour singles titles throughout his career, most recently in 2013 at the illustrious event in Braunschweig, Germany. Mayer intends to play more ATP Challenger Tour events as he looks to make it back to the upper echelons of tennis, but given his recent battles with injuries, he’s simply happy to be playing.

“I hope to try and re-enter the Top 100 of the Emirates ATP Rankings next year,” said Mayer. “The most important thing for me though is to stay healthy and have fun with the game.”

Novak Djokovic overcame a sluggish start to beat Thomaz Bellucci 0-6, 6-3, 6-2 and move into the Internazionali BNL d’Italia quarter-finals on Thursday.

It marks the 10^th consecutive year Djokovic has made the quarter-finals in Rome. He’ll face No. 5 seed Rafael Nadal, who beat Nick Kyrgios in three sets.

Djokovic will try to avoid a similar start to what he experienced against Bellucci. The World No. 1 looked out of sorts, missing routine shots and failing to push the Brazilian. Djokovic won only eight points and lost all three break points faced. He also didn’t earn a break point against Bellucci in the first set, which ended after just 24 minutes.

“After the first set I had to change. First set was a complete Bellucci storm, and I was blown away from the court,” Djokovic said. “Fortunately the matches are played in best of three, so I had another opportunity to come back and to restart, which I did.”

The Serb quickly got on the board in the second set, holding serve in the first game. He even celebrated what had been a rare occasion, raising his arms to cheers from the packed Centre Court. The Serb later earned a break and served out the set at 5-3.

“The crucial game was the first game of the second set where I held my serve, and then I felt that things started to go my way as I tactically changed certain things, started to change the pace, get him on the move from one corner to another… And it worked well,” Djokovic said.

Bellucci brought more fight into the third set but Djokovic was as focused as ever and earned two breaks to set up his 49^th meeting against Nadal. Djokovic leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 25-23 and has won their past six matches. Nadal last beat him at Roland Garros in 2014.

“Tomorrow is a big challenge playing against Rafa. The fact that I played against a left-handed player today hopefully will get myself positioned well for the next match,” Djokovic said. “I’ve played him in Rome several times… I have watched his match. I’m going to try to get myself ready. I’m hoping I can start better than I did today.”

Andy Murray avoided a third set against Jeremy Chardy as he held off a second-set fightback from the Frenchman to prevail 6-0, 6-4 on Thursday in the third round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome.

It took Chardy 38 minutes to register his first game of the match, as he levelled at 1-1 in the second set. The first set had seen Murray in ruthless form, losing just four points on serve and breaking Chardy three times.

But after holding from 0/40 in the sixth game of the second set, Chardy then broke Murray in the following game, threading a backhand pass up the line for a 4-3 lead. The Frenchman’s revival was short-lived, though. Murray broke back in the following game, converting his fourth break point as Chardy netted a forehand, before winning the final two games to prevail in 78 minutes.

“It could have been more comfortable in the second set,” Murray said. “I had 3-2, love-40 and, I think, four break points in that game, didn’t get them. Then I had a couple of mistakes in the next game and the momentum shifted a lot.

“But I managed to get it back by winning a very tough game at 4-3 and then finished the match off well. But apart from a few minutes of the match, I played very well. I was making it difficult for him and played a lot of different shots. I used a lot of variety so that was good.”

The 28-year-old Murray is bidding to reach the semi-finals at the Foro Italico for the first time since 2011 (l. to Djokovic). He goes on to face David Goffin.

Murray is coming off a runner-up showing in his third ATP World Tour clay-court final in Madrid, where he lost out to Novak Djokovic. The Dunblane native won his first two clay-court crowns last year in Munich and Madrid.

Goffin raced through his third-round clash with Tomas Berdych 6-0, 6-0 in just 49 minutes, handing the Czech his first double bagel at any level, including singles, doubles and ITF juniors. The 12^th-seeded Goffin lost just 15 points in the whole match, including only eight on serve. The last time a Top 10 player was double bagelled was when Roger Federer defeated Gaston Gaudio at the 2005 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

Victory marked just the third Top 10 win of Goffin’s career (3-26 mark). The Belgian is bidding to reach his third Masters 1000 semi-final of the season, after back-to-back final four showings in Indian Wells (l. to Raonic) and Miami (l. to Djokovic).

“He’s obviously a top player,” Murray said. “Now he’s been around Top 20 in the world for the last couple of years, and again, this year he’s played very well. I didn’t see any of the match today, but to win love and love against one of the best players in the world, you’ve got to be feeling good.

“It was a tough match in the [2015] Davis Cup final when we played, you know, but I managed to win that one. Hopefully I learned a few things from playing against him on the clay and I’ll try and execute a good game plan tomorrow. It worked well in Ghent.”

Murray leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head series with Goffin 3-0.

Juan Martin del Potro will not play at Roland Garros later this month, but his fans shouldn’t despair too much; he’s not missing the tournament because of any lingering or new injury. Del Potro announced Thursday that he’s feeling great but that his comeback will best be served by missing the season’s clay-court Grand Slam.

“We decided that the smartest move is to start my preparation for the grass season,” del Potro said on social media. “The list of tournaments is yet to be confirmed, but I hope to play as much as possible.”

This would have been the first time del Potro has played several consecutive tournaments since coming back earlier this year after missing 11 months because of surgery on his left wrist. The 27 year old played at the Delray Beach Open in mid-February and took a few weeks off from matches before playing in Indian Wells and Miami in March. About a month later, del Potro slid on the clay in Munich and Madrid.

The right-hander has enjoyed deep runs at Roland Garros. He’s played there six times and his best result was the semi-finals (2009, l. to Federer). Del Potro last played there in 2012.

Fans who will be in Paris in a couple weeks should return next year for a chance to catch del Potro. “Sorry for my fans at Roland Garros, I am going to miss you one more year,” he said. “I’ll see you in 2017!”

There are 11 seeds in third round action on Thursday at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, led by the top six of Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Roger Federer, Stan Wawrinka, Rafael Nadal and Kei Nishikori. The first five players have captured 53 of the past 56 ATP Masters 1000 titles (since ’10 Monte-Carlo).

For the second day in a row, Federer opens proceedings on Center Court against the second-youngest player in the Top 20 Emirates ATP Rankings, 22-year-old Dominic Thiem, the No. 13 seed. Federer won the previous meeting 61 64 in the semi-finals of Brisbane in the opening week of the season. Federer is one match win away from tying Ivan Lendl with 1,071 wins on the Open Era list. Thiem, who comes in with a 31-9 match record on the season, the second-most match wins behind Djokovic (34), has a 3-13 career record against Top 10 opponents (2-4 this year). 

In the third match on, 21-year-old Next Generation star Nick Kyrgios, the youngest player left, looks for his second win against seven-time Rome champion Nadal. Kyrgios won the previous meeting in the 4R at Wimbledon two years ago, firing 37 aces. The young Aussie posted his career-best fifth Top 10 win of the season on Wednesday over No. 10 Raonic. Nadal leads the ATP World Tour this year with an 18-3 clay court record, winning 14 of his past 15 matches. The only time he’s lost prior to the quarter-finals in Rome in 11 previous appearances was in 2008 (2R, l. to Ferrero).

In the evening session, World No. 1 and two-time reigning champion Djokovic brings a 5-0 career record against Brazilian left-hander Thomaz Bellucci. Djokovic, a four-time overall winner in Rome, is looking to reach the quarter-finals or better here for the 10th consecutive year. He’s won his last 11 matches in Rome and is 34-2 on the season. Bellucci has a 5-33 career record (0-1 in 2016) vs. Top 10 opponents and he’s looking to break a 19-match losing streak vs. Top 10 since his last win over No. 8 Tipsarevic in the final of 2012 Gstaad.

On Grandstand, No. 11 seed Richard Gasquet looks to avenge last week’s loss to Nishikori at ATP Masters 1000 Madrid. The Frenchman leads the overall head-to-head meetings 6-1. In the next match on, French lucky loser Lucas Pouille looks for his second win against No. 9 David Ferrer. Pouille saved one match point in his three-set 3R win over the Spaniard at ATP Masters 1000 Miami. Ferrer is trying to reach the quarter-finals for the seventh time in 13 appearances. In the last match on, No. 8 Tomas Berdych takes a 2-0 record against No. 12 seed David Goffin. This is their first meeting on clay.

On Pietrangeli, Juan Monaco of Argentina takes on Wawrinka, who has won the four previous meetings, including their last encounter here in the 2R one year ago. In the next match on, Frenchman Jeremy Chardy squares off with Murray, who leads the head-to-head 7-1 (2-0 on clay). Murray won the last two meetings on clay last year here and at Roland Garros. Both players are trying to reach the quarter-finals in Rome for the second time in three years. Chardy has a 9-43 career record vs. Top 10 opponents.