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Patna : Nine-time champion Rafael Nadal, 34, Spain, defeated 6th seed Alexander Zverev, 24, Germany, in straight sets in quarter-finals on May 14, 2021, to reach semi-finals of Italian Open, an ATP Masters 1,000 clay courts tournament, at Rome, Italy. Nadal, who had lost to Zverev in the QFs of Madrid Open on May 7, 2021, beat the German 6-3, 6-4 in nearly 2 hours.
World No 3 Nadal, the winner of 20 Grand Slam singles titles, won 3 break points during the match to 1 by Zverev, who won the Madrid Open title for the second time last week. Nadal also won 4 games in a row to 2 by the German. The Spainiard, in all, won 72 points during the match to 2 by Zverev. The German though fired 6 Aces in the match to just 1 by Nadal. But, Zverev also committed 3 double faults. Zverev had created 10 break point opportunities during the match but could convert only of them. Nadal had created 6 break point opportunities and converted 3 of them. Nadal had raced to 4-0 in the first in no time.
Nadal will face fast serving World No 47 Reilly Opelka, 23, USA, in SFsat 4.45 pm on May 15, 2021. Opelka beat World No 64 Federico Delbonis, 30, Argentina, 7-5, 7-6 in QFs. Opelka hammered 18 Aces during the match to 5 by Delbonis. Opelka also won 1 break point and 3 games in a row in the match.
In another QFs between World No 1 & five-time champion Novak Djokovic, 33, Serbia, and 5th seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, 22, Greece, the former was trailing 4-6, 1-2 when the play was suspended due to rain on May 14, 2021.