A LOOK BACK

Open du Pays d’Aix (Aix-en-Provence, France): In a battle between unseeded players, Thiago Monteiro won his first ATP Challenger Tour title by prevailing in the final over Carlos Berlocq, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1. He now rises to a career-high Emirates ATP Ranking of No. 142 , having started the year at No. 463. Berlocq was looking to win his 17^th ATP Challenger Tour singles title, which would have tied him for third on the all-time titles list with Paolo Lorenzi and Go Soeda.

Busan Open Challenger (Busan, Korea): Konstantin Kravchuk won his first ATP Challenger Tour singles title in seven years with his win on Sunday over Daniel Evans, 6-4 6-4. The 31-year-old Russian was able to get revenge from Evans’ victory over him in last week’s ATP Challenger Tour final in Taipei. Kravchuk, who broke a six-match losing streak in Challenger finals, will also move up to a career-high Emirates ATP Ranking of No. 102 when next week’s standings are released. 

Despite the loss, Evans continues to be in top form this year. The Brit has compiled a 16-2 record on the ATP Challenger Tour since March.

Karshi Challenger (Karshi, Uzbekistan): In one of the biggest upsets this year on the ATP Challenger Tour, World No. 251 Marko Tepavac won his first Challenger title by shocking No. 1 seed and World No. 74 Dudi Sela, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(4). The 24-year-old from Serbia had won only one main draw match on the ATP Challenger Tour prior to this week. He also became the first player to beat the top two seeds on his path to winning the title since Pedro Cachin did the same last September in Seville, Spain.

Sela was bidding for his 21^st ATP Challenger Tour singles title. He won his 20^th title last March in Shenzhen, China.

Roma Garden Open (Rome, Italy): No. 2 seed Kyle Edmund continued his dominant form in 2016 by winning his second ATP Challenger Tour title of the year, convincingly beating No. 5 seed Filip Krajinovic in the championship match, 7-6(2), 6-0. He’s now won five Challenger titles on four different continents and ties Hyeon Chung for the most titles among #NextGen players. Edmund previously prevailed on clay last November at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID

Kravchuk: “It’s an amazing feeling! This title means that hard work and faith allow you to achieve goals you put your mind to. It makes you stronger and proud for what you do. My goal before this trip was to get into the Wimbledon main draw directly and Seoul is the last opportunity to do that. I think I need two more match wins. I will fight for that.”

A LOOK AHEAD

There are four tournaments on the calendar this week, with the $100,000 tournament in Bordeaux, France, taking top billing. This Challenger returns for the ninth straight year and features several prominent champions including Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils. All eight seeds this year are ranked inside the Top 100 of the Emirates ATP Rankings, with world No. 62 Diego Schwartzman taking top honors as the No. 1 seed and World No. 72 Lukas Rosol coming in as the No. 2 seed.

Other notable names in the draw include No. 6 seed Jordan Thompson, a winner of two ATP Challenger Tour singles titles this year. #NextGen stars Elias Ymer, Jared Donaldson and Quentin Halys, all of whom have won Challenger titles within the last two weeks, are also in the draw. Last week’s winner in Aix-en-Provence, Thiago Monteiro, faces No. 3 seed Adrian Mannarino in the first round.

The $100,000 challenger in Seoul, Korea, is also back for the 16^th year.  Three players ranked inside the Top 100 of the Emirates ATP Rankings are in the draw, with World No. 67 John Millman taking top seed status. Other notable names in the draw include last week’s winner and finalist in Busan, Konstantin Kravchuk and Daniel Evans, with the latter coming as the No. 4 seed. Also returning is Yen-Hsun Lu, this year’s No. 5 seed and a three-time champion in Seoul, while 2009 winner Lukas Lacko is the No. 8 seed.

The illustrious $75,000 event in Heilbronn, Germany, returns for the 29^th consecutive year and features a prominent list of past champions that include Robin Soderling and Magnus Larsson. World No. 55 Ricardas Berankis, a winner of two ATP Challenger Tour titles this year, is the No. 1 seed, while World No. 91 Horacio Zeballos is the No. 2 seed. Other notable names in the draw include former World No. 8 Janko Tipsarevic, former world No. 22 Albert Montanes, and #NextGen stars Andrey Rublev, Frances Tiafoe and Yoshihito Nishioka, with the latter coming in as the No. 5 seed .

Lastly, the $50,000 event in Samarkand, Uzbekistan holds its 20^th edition this year. #NextGen star Karen Khachanov is the No. 1 seed, while Radu Albot is the No. 2 seed. Other notable names in the draw including local favourite and 2014 champion Farrukh Dustov, as well as last week’s winner in Karshi, Marko Tepavac.

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ATP CHALLENGER TOUR ON TWITTER: New in 2016, the ATP Challenger Tour has launched a dedicated Twitter account for the latest news and information about players and events. Follow @ATPChallengerTour at twitter.com/ATPChallengerTour.

Defending champion Andy Murray surrendered his Mutua Madrid Open title in three sets to Novak Djokovic in the final on Sunday, but the Brit, who took out an in-form Rafael Nadal en route to the final, is feeling stronger than ever on clay.

“I think I’m definitely moving better. It makes a huge difference,” said Murray, who had never won a tour-level title on clay until triumphing in Madrid and Munich last year. “On the other surfaces, it’s a massive strength of mine, a big part of my game, and for a number years I didn’t move well on the clay.

“It was a hindrance, and that makes you uncomfortable. If you took Ivo Karlovic’s serve away he would feel uncomfortable going on the court. For me, take my movement away…

“When I was having the problems with my back it was difficult for me when stepping on the court; whereas now my body feels great. I feel like I’m moving a lot better. So I’m not going on the court sort of a little bit nervous or apprehensive. I believe I can play well on clay now.”

Murray’s improvements have allowed him to push Djokovic to the limit in Madrid, though he is now 0-4 against the Serb on clay. Djokovic leads the pair’s FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 23-9 overall.

“We’ve been in the top of the game for a very long time. I hope I can stay there for longer. Some players are playing into their late 30s now. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do that, but hopefully I still have a few more good years left,” said Murray. “I think I need to start winning a few more to call it a great rivalry. We’ve played in a lot of big matches. Up until the last couple of years it was extremely close.

“Today I needed to keep my sort of intensity very high and concentrate on every point. I made a few mistakes in the middle of the third. The best players capitalise on that,” noted Murray, who was broken twice in the deciding set and only converted on one of eight break chances against the Djokovic serve. “In the last game, I don’t know how many break point chances I had, but must have been six or seven.

“Both of us were pretty clinical on the break points up until the last game for me. That’s why he’s No. 1 just now. He fought very hard in that game and served well when he was a bit nervous. At the end, he came up with some big serves and got himself some free points.”

Murray understands that only one player can come out the winner in any given match. Overall, he is happy with his form, especially considering his 7-5, 6-4 semi-final victory over Rafael Nadal. Nadal had won back-to-back titles at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters and the Barcelona Open BancSabadell.

“It is a completely different game, playing against Rafa. Novak plays significantly flatter, stands much closer to the baseline and returns much closer to the baseline, so there is much less time. Maybe took me a while to adjust to that.

“Against Rafa, you have more time because he plays higher over the net. You’re then able to play with spin as well; whereas at the start when Novak is hitting the ball flatter and faster, it’s not as easy to play high and use your spin.”

“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. “It’s been positive from where I was a few weeks ago going into Monte-Carlo. I’ve played well. We’ll see what happens the next few weeks.”

Casual tennis fans often assume that Spanish players are naturally adept on clay courts, but a crash course in South America this past off-season helped Enrique Lopez-Perez start to feel comfortable on the dirt and produce some of the best results of his career.

The 24-year-old started the year by going on a tear in Futures events, compiling a 21-3 record in five tournaments and winning two of them. Lopez-Perez built on that momentum last month by coming through qualifying to reach the semi-finals of the ATP Challenger Tour event in Barletta, Italy, and made his first Challenger final the following week at another Italian tournament in Turin. Switching back to hard courts at this week’s ATP Challenger Tour event in Karshi, Uzbekistan, Lopez-Perez won the doubles title with Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan

Having started the year at No. 479 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, he has already cut his ranking in half. Lopez-Perez admitted that he has more experience on hard courts, but said his time in South America showed him that he’s capable of being an all-surface player.

“I don’t have clay courts in my city and only practice on hard courts, so I took a coach and went down to South America for a month to practice on clay courts for the first time. My results on clay have been much better since then,” said Lopez-Perez. “Playing on hard courts in Karshi wasn’t difficult because I’m able to switch surfaces pretty easily, plus the staff here is working well and doing everything they can to help the players.”

Perhaps most importantly, Lopez-Perez is now injury free after receiving extensive treatment on his wrist. He said the time away from the tour may have also been a blessing in disguise because it allowed him to work on other areas of his game.

“I didn’t get to play that much last year, so I worked on my fitness a lot more than usual and now I’m in better shape,” he said. “I’m starting to feel a little bit of pain in the wrist after playing so many matches this year (49 singles matches in total), but I’m still healthy and able to play at the moment.”

Lopez-Perez said his start to 2016 has surpassed his initial expectations, but there’s still one main goal he has yet to achieve.

“I want to win my first ATP Challenger Tour singles title,” he said. “Once I do that, maybe I’ll head to the U.S. this summer and start to play some of the bigger tournaments on hard courts.”

Novak Djokovic now stands alone.

The World No. 1, who was tied with Rafael Nadal with 28 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles, won his 29^th championship at the Mutua Madrid Open on Sunday. The Serb overcame a worthy fight from defending champion Andy Murray 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in two hours and six minutes.

The 28 year old continued his mastery over the game’s best. He has won 33 of the past 35 sets against Top 10 opponents, over a stretch of 15 matches. He’s also won five of the past six and 10 of the past 14 Masters 1000 titles. Djokovic also pulled level with Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras for sixth on the Open Era titles list with title No. 64.

“It’s obviously very flattering to be alongside such legends of the sport, tennis players that I was looking up to, especially Pete Sampras. When I was growing up he was ruling the tennis world,” Djokovic said. “It’s an achievement that I’m very proud of. As you said, it’s a motivation for more. When you get to this particular phase of your career, you need to constantly look for more ways of inspiring and motivating yourself to keep going.”

Murray has felt Djokovic’s reign. The Scot is 24-3 on clay during the past two years, and two of the losses have come against Djokovic. The World No. 2 also is 2-14 against Djokovic since October 2012. “We played in a lot of big matches. Up until the last couple years it was extremely close,” Murray said. “Obviously [I’ve] managed to win a couple of the big ones against him; lost some tough ones.”

Djokovic looked like he would dominate the pair’s 32^nd meeting in the early going. Murray had erased more than 80 per cent of break points faced in Madrid before Sunday. But he was broken to start the match and again in the first set. Djokovic especially pounced on Murray’s second serve, winning five of those six points in the opener.

Murray, meanwhile, struggled against Djokovic’s serve. The No. 1 seed lost only three points on his serve during the first set (16/19) and gained the early lead in 31 minutes. “He played unbelievable at the start,” Murray said.

But Murray responded in the second set, striking deep groundstrokes to keep Djokovic back. Murray held to start the set and later earned his first break of the match on a Djokovic double fault to go up 3-1. He consolidated the break with powerful serving and served out the set at 5-3 with a drop-shot winner. “He started serving very well, especially down the T and deuce side,” Djokovic said. “Very precise and very strong, and he was backing that serve up with aggressive first shots.”

The two exchanged breaks early in the third. But Djokovic earned another at 3-2 and erased seven break points at 5-3 to win his second title in Madrid. “Of course I did not want to let that service game go because I know that Andy will capitalise on his opportunities and [would] start to play better if he broke my serve,” Djokovic said. “So I fought. I fought very hard, and I’m just glad that I managed to finish that game.”

The Belgrade native will receive 1,000 Emirates ATP Rankings points and €912,900. Murray will receive 600 Emirates ATP Rankings points and €447,630. He also will fall to No. 3 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, having needed to retain the title to remain at No. 2. Roger Federer will take his place in the second spot.

FINALS PREVIEW: Ten years ago in Madrid, a pair of 19-year-olds born a week apart played for the very first time on the ATP World Tour. The careers of Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray come full circle at Caja Mágica on Sunday when the World No. 1 and World No. 2 contest their 32nd match (Djokovic leads 22-9). Their first encounter was in the Round of 16, but this time the Mutua Madrid Open championship, ATP Masters 1000 title record, and No. 2 ranking are all on the line.

Watch the final live at tennistv.com

Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are tied with 28 ATP Masters 1000 titles – most since the series of nine elite events was introduced in 1990. The Serb is on a remarkable run at the best tournaments on tour and against the greatest players in the world. It takes two out of three sets to win a match, but Djokovic has dropped only one of his last 32 sets against Top 10 opponents, a stretch of 14 straight victories. Djokovic has also won four of the last five and nine of the last 13 ATP Masters 1000 titles.

However, Murray has won more Mutua Madrid Open championships than Djokovic, whose lone title in the Spanish capital came five years ago. Murray, the 2008 and 2015 Madrid champion, is coming off straight-set wins over the fifth-ranked Nadal and eighth-ranked Tomas Berdych. Though he is 0-3 against Djokovic on clay, Murray is one of the most improved players on the surface. The Brit had a 63-37 clay-court record with no finals appearances entering the 2015 season. He is 24-2 on clay since then, highlighted by back-to-back titles at Munich and Madrid last May.

Murray needs to win his third Madrid title in order to remain No. 2 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. Should Murray lose in the final, both he and Roger Federer will have 7,525 ranking points. By rule, the tie is broken with the most total points from Grand Slams, the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, and ATP Masters 1000 mandatory tournaments (not including Monte-Carlo). Federer has 6,180 points in the tiebreaker, while Murray would have 6,120 points with a runner-up finish in Madrid.

The doubles final features defending champions Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea against No. 3 seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau. Bopanna and Mergea saved a match point in the semi-finals and have earned all three of their wins this week in a match tiebreaker. Rojer and Tecau, on the other hand, have not dropped a set yet, including a semi-final win over Indian Wells, Miami and Monte-Carlo champions Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut.

Rojer and Tecau are 4-0 overall against Bopanna and Mergea. In their most recent meetings, Rojer and Tecau won 13-11 in the fifth set of the Wimbledon semi-finals and again in the final of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. Neither team has won a title this season, though countrymen Mergea and Tecau joined forces in their native Romania to capture the Bucharest championship on April 25. Bopanna and Rojer partnered that same week and lost in the Barcelona quarter-finals.

Novak Djokovic secured a spot in the Mutua Madrid Open final for the second time, surviving a late rally from Kei Nishikori to prevail 6-3, 7-6(4).

Djokovic will renew his storied rivalry with Andy Murray on Sunday, with a second title at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event on the line. The Serb, who previously triumphed in 2011 (d. Nadal), has now swept through 14 straight matches against fellow Top 10 players, notching 30 of 31 sets during that stretch.

With the roof open on a rainy Saturday evening in the Spanish capital, the 2011 champion escaped early trouble, coming under pressure in his first three service games. Nishikori looked to play first-strike tennis against the World No. 1, claiming 14 of the first 19 baseline points and registering the first 10 winners of the match. The top-seeded Serb saved three break points (at 0/40) to open proceedings and those missed opportunities would prove to be critical for the Japanese.

At 4-3 deuce, Djokovic whipped a forehand that kicked out of Nishikori’s reach and an unforced error would give the Serb the first break of the match. The top seed closed out the first set a game later after 40 minutes. In total, Djokovic dominated rallies under five shots in the opener, capturing 22 of 31.

Nishikori looked to have the upper hand at the start of the second set, striking a sublime acute-angled drop shot winner to hold for 2-1. The tide looked to be turning with a 0/30 edge in the next game, but Djokovic would shut the door and the World No. 1 converted his third break chance in the fifth game to take the lead for good… or so it seemed.

On the doorstep of victory at 5-4 40/0, Djokovic would see his seemingly insurmountable lead evaporate in a shocking turn of events. All three match points would come and go and Nishikori would save a fourth two points later. Djokovic relinquished his first break of the tournament as Nishikori suddenly reeled off 13 of 18 points, pulling ahead 6-5.

But Djokovic would survive in the ensuing tie-break, converting his fifth match point for the victory after one hour and 59 minutes. He fired 22 winners, including five aces, while taking eight off 11 net points. The Serb won 51 points lasting under five shots, to Nishikori’s 33.

Nishikori, runner-up to Rafael Nadal in Madrid in 2011, was bidding to reach a third consecutive final on the ATP World Tour (Miami & Barcelona). Djokovic took an 8-2 lead in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series and will look to extend his 22-9 mark against Murray, exactly 10 years removed from the very first encounter in the Madrid third round.