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Patna : World No 2 and 2nd seed Rafael Nadal, 32, Spain, and World No 9 Stefanos Tsitsipas, 20, Greece, have advanced to the semi-finals of Madrid Open, Madrid, Spain, in contrasting styles though.
Nadal, the winner of 17 Grand Slam singles titles, demolished World No 34 Stan Wawrinka, 34, Switzerland, 6-1, 6-2 in the quarter-finals on May 11, 2019, to make his 70th ATP Masters semi-finals appearance. Nadal now leads Wawrinka, the winner of 3 Grand Slam titles, 18-3 head to head. Nadal had first defeated Wawrinka in Australian Open in 2007 in the Round of 32. Nadal had earlier reached semi-finals of Indian Wells Masters, Monte-Carlo Masters, and Barcelona Open in 2019. Nadal played like the clay court king he is known as.
Nadal will face Tsitsipas in the second semi-finalsat 12.30 am on May 12, 2019. Tsitsipas beat World No 3 Alexander Zverev, 22, Germany, in a three-set thriller 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 in the quarter-finals on May 10, 2019, late night. Tsitsipas broke Zverev’s service thrice in the match while the latter broke his service only once. Both the players won 3 games each in a row in the match. Zverev though fired 8 Aces in the match to 4 by Tsitsipas. Zverev committed 4 double faults to 2 by Tsitsipas, the Next Gen. ATP final champion. Nadal leads Tsitsipas 3-0 head to head.
Nadal, bidding for his 6th Madrid Open title, broke Wawrinka four times in the match besides winning 5 games in a row. Nadal’s winning percentage both on his first and second serve (79 % & 90 %) was much better than that of Wawrinka ( 54% & 35 %). Wawrinka though fired 3 Aces in the match to none by Nadal. Nadal won 32 service points to 20 by Wawrinka.
World No 1 and top seed Novak Djokovic will face World No 5 Dominic Thiem, 25, Austria, in the first semi-finals on May 11, 2019, at 7.30 pm. Thiem had defeated World No 3 and winner of 20 Grand Slam titles Roger Federer, 37, Switzerland, in the quarter-finals in three-sets on May 10.
In the women’s section, World No 3 Simona Haelp, Romania, will face World No 7 Kiki Bertens, Netherlands, in the final at 10 pm on May 11, 2019.