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Patna : 8th Seed Diego Schwartzman, 28, Argentina, stunned 2nd seed and winner of 19 Grand Slam singles Rafael Nadal, 34, in straight sets 6-2, 7-5 in quarter-finals at Foro Italico, Rome, Italy, on September 19, 2020, late night, at Italian Open 2020, to set up a semi-final match against 12th seed Denis Shapovalov, 21, Canada. Shapovalov beat 15th seed Grigor Dimitrov, 29, Bulgaria, 6-2, 3-6,6-2 in QFs on September 19. World No 2 Nadal said that the Argentine did a great job.
Schwartzman defeated nine time Italian Open Champion Nadal in 124 minutes to record his first win over an off colour Spainiard in ten meeting. Schwartzman’s winning percent both on his first and second (62% & 52%) was much better than that of Nadal’s (47% & 45 %). Schwartzman won 5 break points to 2 by Nadal, who was ruthless in his victories in the first two rounds.
The Argentine shocked Nadal by winning 5 consecutive break points. Schwartzman, in all, won 71 points in the match to 52 by the Spainiard. The Argentine also won 5 games in a row in the match. Nadal lost his serve three times in a row. Schwartzman did not allow Nadal to play his natural clay court game by engaging him rallies and attacking his two-handers. The Argentine said he played his best tennis in the match. Nadal now leads Schwartzman 9-1 Head to Head.
Shapovalov defeated Dimitrov in a thriller. The Canadian won 5 break points to 2 by the Bulgaria. Both the players won 3 games each in a row. The Canadian won 74 points in the match to 64 by Dimitrov.