Rafael Nadal has now won 40 consecutive sets on clay dating back to last year’s French Open after he hammered fellow Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-1, 6-3 in round three of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell on Thursday. Nadal broke serve five times in eight return games while advancing in one hour and 19 minutes.
The world No. 1 had been on course to face Kei Nishikori in the last 16 and Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals, but Nishikori retired against Garcia-Lopez and Djokovic lost his opener to Martin Klizan. Thus Nadal will go up against Klizan on Friday after the 140th-ranked Slovakian parlayed his big win over the Serb into a 6-1, 6-4 rout of Feliciano Lopez on Thursday.
On the other side of the bracket, No. 2 seed Grigor Dimitrov and fifth-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta will be going head-to-head after they survived respective third-set tiebreakers. Dimitrov fought off two match points to beat Malek Jaziri 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(8), while Carreno Busta saved three match points before converting his fifth to outlast Adrian Mannarino 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(6).
The Dimitrov-Carreno Busta winner will meet either Dominic Thiem or Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semifinals. Thiem and Tsitsipas are a combined 10-0 in total sets this week. That is nothing out of the ordinary for the Austrian, but for the 19-year-old Greek it continues his 2018 breakout on tour. Tsitsipas has now won nine ATP-level matches this season following Barcelona victories over Corentin Moutet, Diego Schwartzman, and Albert Ramos-Vinolas. His 6-4, 7-5 defeat of Ramos-Vinolas on Thursday was an especially impressive clay-court result.
“It’s the surface,” Tsitsipas said of his outstanding current form. “I feel very confident when I step on the dirt. I always show my best tennis on this surface. I really hope the confidence keeps going. I’m very satisfied with my tennis so far.”
Dimitrov-Jaziri highlights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq_GZi9DXq0
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some close ones