Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Roger Federer have combined to win the last 15 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles, with at least one member of the ‘Big Four’ playing in 30 straight finals at this level. Through three rounds at the 2016 Mutua Madrid Open, three players remain capable of extending those streaks on Sunday.

Djokovic and Nadal have not dropped a set as they battle for a record 29th ATP Masters 1000 title. The top-seeded Djokovic is 6-0 in matches and 15-1 in sets against his quarter-final opponent on Friday, World No. 10 Milos Raonic. Djokovic is also on a 12-match unbeaten run versus Top 10 players, winning 27 of 28 sets during that stretch. Nadal, meanwhile, meets unseeded Joao Sousa for a spot in the semi-finals. Sousa is 1-21 with a 19-match losing streak against Top 10 opponents.

Play begins with Murray, the 2008 and 2015 Madrid champion, facing No. 8 seed Tomas Berdych. The Brit is 0-3 against Berdych on clay, but 3-0 overall since Dani Vallverdu left Murray’s camp to coach the Czech last season. Should Murray fail to defend his title this week, he will lose the No. 2 ranking to Federer on Monday. Also on Friday, No. 6 seed Kei Nishikori plays 21-year-old Aussie Nick Kyrgios, the youngest Madrid quarter-finalist since Juan Martin del Potro in 2009.

With Jamie Murray losing in the second round, there will be a new No. 1 in next week’s Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings. Ex-No. 1 Marcelo Melo has the inside track but can be passed by No. 3 Nicolas Mahut and No. 5 Horia Tecau. All three contenders play in the quarter-finals on Friday, with Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert continuing their quest for history against Bob and Mike Bryan. The Frenchmen are bidding to become the first doubles team or singles player to sweep the first four ATP Masters 1000 titles. The Bryans came the closest to doing so in 2014, winning Indian Wells, Miami and Monte-Carlo before falling in the Madrid final.

Top seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut defeated Spaniards Pablo Carreno Busta and Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 7-6(4) in the second round of the Mutua Madrid Open on Thursday. The Frenchmen improved to 15-1 in 2016 and have not lost since the quarter-finals of Brisbane in January.

Since then, Herbert/Mahut have swept the first three ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events of the year – the BNP Paribas Open (d. Pospisil/Sock), the Miami Open presented by Itau (d. Klaasen/Ram) and the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters (d. Murray/Soares).

No doubles team has won the first four ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events in the same year, and standing in the way of the Frenchmen will be Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan, who were one match away from accomplishing the feat in 2014 before losing the Madrid final to Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic.

The Americans set up a tantalising quarter-final matchup with Herbert/Mahut by edging in-form Lukasz Kubot and Marcin Matkowski 7-5, 2-6, 10-8 in the second round. The Polish duo made the final of Estoril last week (l. to Butorac/Lipsky) and landed 80 per cent of first serves against the Bryans, but succumbed in 81 minutes.

Second seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares fell to Henri Kontinen and John Peers 6-4, 7-6(4). Kontinen/Peers were unbreakable in the second-round match, firing six aces and winning 91 per cent of first serve points.

Murray’s loss ensures that there will be a change at No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings on Monday. There are three players in contention to take top spot: Former No. 1 Marcelo Melo, Mahut and Romanian Horia Tecau, who teamed up with Jean-Julien Rojer to beat Thomaz Bellucci and Leonardo Mayer 6-4, 6-4.

Melo is guaranteed to reclaim top spot from Murray, who displaced the Brazilian almost five weeks ago, if he reaches at least the semi-finals and Mahut does not advance one round farther than Melo. Melo will also move to No. 1 if Tecau does not win the title and Mahut loses in the quarter-finals. Mahut will go to No. 1 if he wins one more match than Melo. Tecau can only reach No. 1 if he wins the title and both Melo and Mahut fall in the quarter-finals.

Rafael Nadal drew on his battling qualities on Thursday at the Mutua Madrid Open to keep alive his chances of winning a 29th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title.

The fifth seed and four-time former titlist produced a stunning comeback in the first set against Sam Querrey for a 6-4, 6-2 victory and a place in the quarter-finals, where he will face Joao Sousa.

Nadal came within one point of trailing 1-5, when he served at 30/40 in the sixth game. Querrey later served at 4-3, 40/15, but could not stop Nadal’s resurgence in the 39-minute first set. Nadal grew in confidence and won his seventh game in a row for a 2-0 lead in the second set. Although Querrey recovered to 2-2, Nadal moved up a gear to extinguish any further threats in the 70-minute encounter. It was his 12th straight match win.

“I hadn’t trained during the nighttime, it was a completely different feeling,” Nadal said. “Today it was a little bit slower. At the beginning, when we were warming up, I was feeling a little bit strange, but actually during the week I’ve been training well and playing well.

“After [the slow start] I just had to come back and turn the match around. Luckily once I did that, the match went well. It was on my side most of the time.

“He was going to serve for 5-3 with new balls. You know that you’re at the limit and you can lose the set. Not the match, because you still have another set to go, but it is tough [to be in that position]. In that moment I decided to step back a little bit and change my game. I tried to close the gap so that he couldn’t just go for it. I think it worked out.”

Nadal, who is now 41-9 at the tournament, lifted the trophy in 2005 (d. Ljubicic), 2010 (d. Federer), 2013 (d. Wawrinka) and 2014 (d. Nishikori).

He has recently won back-to-back ATP World Tour titles at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters (d. Monfils) and the Barcelona Open BancSabadell (d. Nishikori) to tie Guillermo Vilas’ record of 49 clay-court titles.

Querrey, 28, captured his first ATP World Tour crown since 2012 at Delray Beach (d. Ram) in February. He dropped to 16-8 overall on the season.

Sousa is through to his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 quarter-final after beating Querrey’s compatriot, Jack Sock, 6-1, 6-7(3), 6-2 in two hours and 14 minutes.

First Tennis Memory: My father owned a small tennis club in Minnesota. All my early tennis memories are playing at the club, hanging around and causing trouble [smiles].

Tennis Inspirations: Learning from my dad. Learning to fall in love with it. How much passion he had for it. He never pushed me, never said I had to play. But just seeing his love for it and all the smiles he put on people’s faces. That’s what I think made me like [tennis] so much.

Greatest Sports Moment: Finals of Australian Open. Grand Slam finals don’t come around often. When you get to play one of those, it’s pretty special.

Most Painful Moment: Losing in NCAA semi-finals. And I was the last match on the court and I let my team down and we lost 4-3. So that was pretty bad.

Strangest Match: Once in Indian Wells, Rafa hit Feliciano Lopez in the back of the head with a serve, 130 miles an hour, off his head and it went out of the stadium.

Embarrassing Tennis Memory: One was when I was watching at one of my first-ever ATP events. I was looking for a seat. Some people invited me to sit in their luxury box, and I didn’t know who it was. I sat the whole match sitting with Federer’s parents… Basel – his hometown. That was horrible. I didn’t know till the very end [smiles].

Favorite Tournaments: Stockholm and Queens. I like some of the old tennis clubs. You see some of the history, the traditions of the sport. A lot of times we play in real modern venues. It’s nice to see some of the old courts and look up at the posters of Borg and McEnroe and Lendl. Some of these tournaments have been held for 100 years. It’s neat to see.

First Famous Player You Met Or Encountered: No memory from when I was young. Probably first year on the ATP World Tour, Agassi was finishing up his career. So getting to meet him just before he finished his career was really cool… at Indianapolis.

Favorite Sport Outside Tennis: Basketball.

Three Athletes You Like To Watch & Follow: Hockey – Henrik Lundqvist, goalie for the New York Rangers. Growing up I liked Chris Mullin [NBA shooting guard]… I like how he handles himself off the field, leadership-wise. Russell Wilson [NFL].

Best You Ever Felt On Court: Australian Open is one of my best tournaments. Down there I always feel great. The one year we beat the Bryans. Then the following round we beat Nestor/Zimonjic 2 and 4 on Laver Arena. To beat the top two teams in the world back-to-back, pretty handily, was probably the best I ever felt.

Funniest Players Encountered: It’s pretty serious these days. Everybody is pretty focused. Surprisingly, a lot of people never see the side of him but behind closed doors in the locker room Federer is more of a jokester than anyone would imagine.

Fiercest Competitors Encountered: Bryan Brothers. Every time – nice guys off the court – and on the court they want to rip your head off every time [smiles].

Courtesy of Scoop Malinowski, tennis-prose.com. Scoop is the author of “Facing Federer” , “Facing Hewitt” and “Facing Nadal”, all available on Amazon.

Novak Djokovic recorded his 30th match win of the season on Thursday to reach the Mutua Madrid Open quarter-finals.

Djokovic was in devastating form against Roberto Bautista Agut, the No. 15 seed, in a 6-2, 6-1 victory over 68 minutes. It was Djokovic’s fourth straight win over the 2014 semi-finalist.

The World No. 1 is attempting to capture his 29th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament and the fifth trophy of 2016. He is now 30-2 on the year.

Djokovic will next play seventh seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or No. 11 seed Milos Raonic.

Nick Kyrgios, in the same quarter of the draw as Djokovic, will take on 2014 runner-up and sixth seed Kei Nishikori after he knocked out Pablo Cuevas 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-3.

Kyrgios, who hit 14 aces and saved five of seven break points, will contest his second ATP World Tour Masters 1000 quarter-final. He lost to Nishikori in the Miami semi-finals last month.