With the Mutua Madrid Open underway, the world’s best players, including Rafael Nadal, Dominic Thiem and Stefanos Tsitsipas, are working hard in practice to prepare themselves for a big run at the Caja Magica.

Nadal is chasing a sixth title at the Spanish ATP Masters 1000 tournament, where he has lifted the trophy in 2005, 2010, 2013, 2014 and 2017. The top seed has been training hard with the likes of World No. 10 Matteo Berrettini and countryman Jaume Munar.

Denis Shapovalov arrived in Spain on a two-match losing streak, but the dynamic lefty was near his best on Sunday, defeating 2019 Monte-Carlo finalist Dusan Lajovic 6-1, 6-3 to reach the second round of the Mutua Madrid Open.

"Just definitely felt a lot better today. I felt very good on the court," Shapovalov said. "I'm just happy to get the first win."

Jan-Lennard Struff bounced back from a slow start on Saturday to book a place in his first ATP Tour final at the BMW Open. The seventh-seeded German broke a seven-match losing streak in semi-finals with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Belarusian qualifier Ilya Ivashka in 87 minutes.

"I am happy to have reached my first final on home soil in Germany and I will try my best tomorrow," said the 31-year-old from Warstein, a 360-mile car ride north of Munich.

Ilya Ivashka earned the biggest win of his career on Friday at the BMW Open when he defeated World No. 6 Alexander Zverev in the quarter-finals.

The Belarusian broke Zverev’s serve to stay in the match at 4-5 in the second set and won nine of the final 12 games of the match to clinch a 6-7(5), 7-5, 6-3 victory on Centre Court. Ivashka capitalised on double faults late in the second set from the two-time champion and claimed the crucial break of the decider at 4-3 to earn his maiden Top 10 win.