Madrid Open: Dan Evans continues progress on clay as Ashleigh Barty reaches semi-finals

Dan Evans continued his progress on clay with a hard-fought win, while Ashleigh Barty extended her winning streak to reach the semi-finals at the Madrid Open.

Evans, who is ranked No 26 in the world, upset top-ranked Novak Djokovic on his way to the semi-finals of a Masters 1000 in Monte Carlo last month and he continued to show his prowess on the surface with another victory on Wednesday in the Spanish capital.

He built on his defeat of Jeremy Chardy after coming from behind to record a 7-6 (7-5) 6-2 6-3 victory over Australian John Millman in just over two-and-a-half hours.

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The opening set was a tense affair, with Millman having fought back from 3-1 down to force the tie-break.

Evans, 30, then broke Millman in the sixth game of the second set to lead 4-2 and went on to take his first set-point chance with another break to love.

The deciding set went with serve until the British No 1 grabbed a crucial break to lead 5-3 before closing out victory on a second match point.

Evans will go on to meet fifth seed Alexander Zverev for a place in the quarter-finals after the German's straight-sets win over Kei Nishikori.

Five-time winner Rafael Nadal crashed Carlos Alcaraz's 18th birthday bash as he dished out a 6-1 6-2 shellacking on Manolo Santana Stadium.

"He has a lot of potential. He's young and [a] good guy," Nadal said of Alcaraz. "He already has a great level of tennis today, but I really believe that he's going to be a fantastic player in the near future.

"I wish him all the very best. [As a] Spanish player and Spanish [tennis] fan, I really believe that we need somebody like him, and it's great to have him here."

World No 3 Daniil Medvedev got his wish of winning at least one match this week after recovering from coronavirus with a hard-fought 4-6 6-4 6-2 victory over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.

Fellow Russian Aslan Karatsev beat seventh seed Diego Schwartzman 2-6 6-4 6-1 to set up a meeting with Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan on Thursday.

Surprise Australian Open semi-finalist Karatsev has a 19-5 match record in 2021.

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In the women's draw, world No 1 Barty continued her domination on clay this season although she needed three sets to take out three-time Madrid champion Petra Kvitova 6-1 3-6 6-3.

The Australian, who made it 15-straight wins on the dirt, will take on Paola Badosa for a place in the final after the Spaniard continued to thrill her hometown fans with a 6-4 7-5 win against Belinda Bencic.

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