MADRID, May 13, 2018

Two Top 10 stars on the ATP World Tour face off on Sunday in hopes of adding the Mutua Madrid Open to their growing title collections, as World No. 3 Alexander Zverev of Germany meets World No. 7 Dominic Thiem of Austria in the championship match in the Spanish capital.

Zverev was in late night action on Saturday, cruising past #NextGenATP Canadian Denis Shapovalov 6-4, 6-1. The second seed didn’t face a break point and capitalized on all of his four own chances to seal victory in just under one hour of play.

Yet to drop a set all week, Sascha Zverev is into another Masters 1000 final defeating Shapovalov 6-4 6-1.#MMOPEN pic.twitter.com/cSPSLRcdwv

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) 12. Mai 2018

“It was great. It was a great match,” Zverev said. “Obviously it’s not easy to play Denis. Great player. Great talent. Hopefully he’ll still improve and there are a lot more matches like this in the future.”

The 21-year-old German has not been broken during the week, and has had to fend off only one break point in his four matches. The #NextGenATP leader won two ATP Masters 1000 titles at the age of 20 last year, in Rome and Montreal.

Thiem leads head-to-head record

Thiem leads the head-to-head record over Zverev by 4-1, including a perfect 3-0 record on clay. Earlier on Saturday, the 24-year-old Austrian defeated Kevin Anderson 6-4, 6-2. Thiem will be searching for his first ATP Masters 1000 title. The fifth seed has reached the final in Madrid for the second year in a row, avenging his loss to Rafael Nadal in last year’s title match with aplomb by shocking the defending champion in the quarterfinals.

“To be honest, I thought that I was pretty far away before this week started,” Thiem stated. “Now I’m in the finals again, which is amazing for me.”

Thiem could become the first Austrian to claim an ATP Masters 1000 title since Thomas Muster won 1997 Miami.