Austrian stuns favourite Nadal in quarters to halt his 17-match unbeaten streak
Austria's Dominic Thiem celebrates after defeating Rafael Nadal in Rome yesterday. Pic/AFP
Rafael Nadal has been knocked out of the Italian Open after a straight-sets defeat by Austrian Dominic Thiem here yesterday.
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The quarter-final victory by Thiem avenged a defeat by the same opponent in last week’s Madrid Open.
The Austrian won 6-4, 6-3 against the 14-time Grand Slam tournament winner in Rome for only his second victory in six meetings between the two.
Spain's Rafael Nadal during his quarter-final match against Dominic Thiem yesterday. Pic/Getty Images
The defeat ended the 30-year-old Spaniard’s unbeaten run this year which had stretched to 17 matches. They had last met in the final in Madrid less than a week ago and that time it was the Spaniard who triumphed 7-6 (10/8) 6-4.
Nadal had also beaten Thiem in the final of the Barcelona Open but he went down to the 23-year-old in Italy. Thiem’s reward is a semi-final meeting with either Novak Djokovic or Juan Martin del Potro who were due to meet in the final quarter-final.
The other semi-final will see Germany's Alexander Zverev take on American John Isner. Isner was a 7-6 (7/3), 2-6, 7-6, (7/2) winner against Croatian Marin Cilic earlier and then Zverev defeated Canadian Milos Raonic 7-6 (7/4) 6-1.
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