Nadal’s defeats Klizan to reach Barcelona semis
World number one Rafael Nadal continued his impressive run on clay after beating Martin Klizan 6-0, 7-5 in the Barcelona quarterfinals. With yet another straight sets win, Nadal took his clay-court win streak to 42 consecutive sets and also moved just one win away from 400 on the surface.
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The 10-time Barcelona winner breezed through the first set but had to dig deep to win the second.
Slovakian qualifier Klizan, who had knocked out Novak Djokovic in the second round, had three set points to take the match to the third set.
But Nadal, who had been 3-5 down in the second set, won four games in a row to book a place in the semifinal where he faces David Goffin.
“It was a great first set but I played a very bad game at the start of the second. It was tough – I feel a little lucky to win in straight sets,” Nadal said.
If he wins in the semifinal, Nadal would become only the fourth man to win 400 matches on clay.
The record is held by Guillermo Vilas, who won 659 clay-court matches.
In the other quarterfinal matches, Goffin beat Roberto Bautista Agut 6-7 (3/7), 6-2, 6-2.
Second seed Grigor Dimitrov was defeated by fifth-seeded Spaniard Pablo Carreno-Busta 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) while third seed Dominic Thiem was stunned 6-3, 6-2 by world number 63 Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Wozniacki retires due to injury
Top seed Caroline Wozniacki was forced to retire from her Istanbul Cup quarter-final against Pauline Parmentier after suffering an abdominal injury.
Australian Open champion Wozniacki retired with the match score at 4-6, 6-3.
Parmentier will now face seventh seed Irina-Camelia Begu who defeated Donna Vekic 3-6, 7-6 (7/1), 6-1.
In the other semi-final, Polona Hercog faces Maria Sakkari.
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