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Patna :Top seed & five-time champion Rafael Nadal, 34, Spain, 3rd seed Dominic Thiem, 27, Austria, John Isner, USA, and Casper Ruud, Norway, reached the quarter-finals of Mutua Madrid Open, an ATP Masters 1,000 clay court event, at Madrid, Spain, on May 6, 2021. World No 22 Casper Ruud stunned World No 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas, 22, Greece, in straight sets in 3rd round.
Nadal beat World No 76 Alexei Popyrin, 21, Australia, in straight sets 6-3, 6-3 in 3rd round in 79 minutes. World No 2 Nadal won 4 break points in the match to 1 by Popyrin. The Australian, however, hammered 8 Aces in the match to 1 by the Spainiard. But, Popyrin also committed 4 double faults. Nadal won 5 games in a row in the match to 2 by the Australian. Nadal, in all, won 57 points to 45 by Popyrin.
World No 4 Thiem defeated World No 24 Alex de Minaur, 22, Australia, in straight sets 7-6, 6-4 in 3rd round in 1 hr 51 minutes. Thiem committed 5 double faults during the match though to 4 by the Australian. Thiem, however, also fired 4 Aces in the match to 1 by the Australian. The Austrian won 3 break points to 2 by the Australian.
Ruud upset 4th seed Tsitsipas in straight sets 7-6, 6-4 in 3rd round in 1hr 33 minutes winning just 1 break point besides the tie-break. Ruud also won 3 games in a row. The Greek fired 5 ACes in the match to 4 by Norwegian. Ruud will face Alexander Bublik, Kazakhstan, in QFs o May 7, 2021.
World No 39 John Isner, 36, battled past 6th & World No 7 Andrey Rublev, 23, Russia, in three-sets 7-6, 3-6, 7-6 in 3rd round hammering 28 Aces to reach the QFs. The Russian won 2 break points in the match. Both the players won 3 games each in a row. Rublev, in all, won 108 points in the match to 95 by Isner, who won both the tiebreaks on the strength of his booming serve. Isner will face Thiem in QFs on May 7, 2021.