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Patna : Fifth seed Alexander Zverev, 24, Germany, stunned top seed & five-time champion Rafael Nadal, 34, Spain, in quarter-finals to reach the semi-finals of Mutua Madrid Open, an ATP Masters 1,000 clay court event, at Madrid, Spain, on May 7, 2021, firing 4 Aces in the match.
World No 6 Zverev beat World No 2 Nadal in straight sets 6-4, 6-4 in 1hr 44 minutes in quarter-finals. Zverev won 3 break points to 1 by the Spainiard, who had a poor match. The German also won 4 games in a row during the match to 2 by Nadal. Zverev, in all, won 65 points to 56 by the Spainiard.
Nadal had lost to World No 7 Andrey Rublev, 23, in quarter-finals of Monte-Carlo Masters on April 16, 2021, indicating he is no longer invincible on clay courts.. Similarly, World No 1 Novak Djokovic, Serbia, had recently lost to Daniel Evans, UK, in Round of 16 of Monte-Carlo Masters and to Aslan Karatsev in semi-finals of Serbia Open.
Third seed & World No 4 Dominic Thiem, 27, Austria, reached the semi-finals of the event defeating World No 39 John Isner, 36, USA, in three-sets 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in 1hr 55 minutes in quarter-finals rallying back from one set down overcoming 18 Aces hammered by the American. Thiem served just 2 Aces in the match. Both the players won 3 games each in a row during the match. Thiem, however, won 2 break points to 1 by Isner. The Austrian, in all, won 87 points to 77 by the American. The Austrian will face Zverev in SFs on May 8, 2021.