Nadal through; to face Gulbis in semis in Rome

World No. 3 Rafael Nadal appears nigh on unstoppable in his pursuit of a fifth title at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia and a record-equalling 17th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 shield. Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka played a high level of tennis that would have troubled most players, but was allowed just five games as Nadal raced to a 6-4, 6-1 victory Friday in the quarter-finals in Rome.

Since making his 2010 clay-court debut at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters two weeks ago, Nadal has not surrendered more than six games in a match and is powering towards the defence of his title at the Foro Italico to join his triumph in Monte-Carlo (d. Verdasco).

The Spaniard was held on serve until the 10th game of his clash with Wawrinka, when he engineered a way through the Swiss player’s defences to snatch a one-set lead. The second set was a more comfortable affair for Nadal, who broke serve in the second and sixth games to seal victory in 90 minutes. Nadal is unbroken in three matches this week, saving eight break points in total.

"I think that in the first set today I was in trouble for a long time," reflected Nadal. "He was doing his serve much better than I was and I only won one point before 5-4 and for the whole game, my serve was hard. The important thing was that I was very concentrated because he was playing very well and perhaps better than me in the beginning. But from the 5-4, I started to play it well.


Friday, 30 April, 2010

Singles - Quarter-finals
[6] F Verdasco (ESP) d [2] N Djokovic (SRB) 76(4) 36 64
[3] R Nadal (ESP) d S Wawrinka (SUI) 64 61
[13] D Ferrer (ESP) d [7] J Tsonga (FRA) 64 61
E Gulbis (LAT) d F Lopez (ESP) 76(6) 61