Barcelona Open: Rafael Nadal beats Martin Klizan as Dominic Thiem loses

Rafael Nadal continued his clay-court domination with a 6-0 7-5 win over Slovakian qualifier Martin Klizan in the Barcelona Open quarter-finals.

The Spanish world number one extended his Open Era record to 42 successive sets won on his favoured surface.

Nadal, 31, will play compatriot Roberto Bautista Agut or Belgium's David Goffin in the last four.

Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas, 19, beat world number seven Dominic Thiem 6-2 6-1 for the biggest win of his career.

World number 63 Tsitsipas punished an error-strewn display to set up a semi-final against Spanish world number 11 Pablo Carreno Busta, who also caused an upset by beating second seed Grigor Dimitrov 6-3 7-6 (7-4).

Nadal, aiming for his 11th title in Barcelona, saved three set points against Klizan, who beat Novak Djokovic in the second round.

Klizan, ranked 140th in the world, was bidding to become the first player to beat Djokovic and Nadal in the same clay-court tournament.

After winning only 13 points in a 31-minute opening set, Klizan rallied in the second and became the first player since Thiem last May to take five games off Nadal in a set.

But he could not hold on to the advantage when attempting to serve out the set as Nadal broke back for 5-5 and won the next two games to seal his 17th clay-court win in a row.

(This story has not been edited by News Teles staff )

Source: https://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/43928070