Nadal improves his imperious Barcelona record to 61-3 as he continues quest for 12th title
Sunday 28 April 2019 11:03, UK
Top seed Rafael Nadal reached the semi-finals of the Barcelona Open after battling past Germany's Jan-Lennard Struff on Friday.
The Spaniard stayed on course for an unprecedented 12th title in the Catalan capital with a 7-5 7-5 win over the world No 51.
Nadal, 32, will next face Indian Wells champion Dominic Thiem who was the fourth straight sets winner of the day, beating Guido Pella 7-5 6-2 to set up a 12th career meeting with the King of Clay.
Nadal avoided a first-set tie-breaker by pushing Struff into a 0-40 hole on his final service game. The world No 2 then closed out the set when Struff could only stab his passing shot off the court.
Both players held serve in the second set until Nadal again broke Struff's final service game. He finished things off by chasing down a ball and landing a backhand return just inside the opposing corner.
Ten of the 11 previous meetings between Nadal and Tiem have taken place of clay with the two man the major protagonists on the red dirt. The pair have met once before in Barcelona, when Nadal recorded a 6-1 604 win over the Austrian in the 2017 final.
Former tournament champion Kei Nishikori will tackle Daniil Medvedev in the other semi-final.
The Japanese star - a winner in 2015 on the clay - defeated Spain's Roberto Carballes Baena 6-4 7-5, while Russian youngster Medvedev continued his fine form having reached the semi-finals in Monte-Carlo last week, by breezing past Nicolas Jarry 6-3 6-4.
In Budapest at the Hungarian Open the two highest remaining seeds crashed out on Friday afternoon.
Second seed Borna Coric was beaten in straight sets by qualifier Filip Krajnovic who will next face Pierre-Hugues Herbert after the Frenchman beat Hungarian wild card Attila Balazs 6-3 6-4.
The other semi-final will see unseeded Italian Matteo Berrettini take on fifth seed Laslo Djere. Berrettini came through in three sets against Pablo Cuevas while Djere came from a set down to knock out fourth seed Nikoloz Bazilashvili.
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