Thiem makes it ‘third time lucky’, as he beats Nadal in Rome

AUSTRIA’S Dominic Thiem dumped seven-times champion Rafael Nadal out of the Italian Open 6-4 6-3 yesterday to reach the semi-finals.

Beaten twice by Nadal in the space of a month, in the Barcelona and Madrid Open finals, Thiem took his revenge by handing the 30-year-old Spaniard a first clay court defeat of the season in Rome.

The upset, after one hour and 51 minutes, ended Nadal’s 17 match unbeaten run on clay.

Thiem will now take on either world number two Novak Djokovic or Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro, meeting for the 18th time on Friday evening, in Saturday’s semifinal at the Foro Italico.

The aggressive eighth seed had Nadal rattled from the start and broke the Spaniard in the first and fifth games to go 5-1 up before Nadal fought back to 5-4.

Thiem then broke for a 4-3 lead in the second set with successive backhand and forehand winners and held on to leave Nadal serving in vain to stay in the match. The Austrian clinched victory on his first matchpoint as Nadal hit wide.

The Spaniard will now focus on the French Open, where he will be aiming for a 10th title at Roland Garros.

Rising German star Alex- ander Zverev earlier reached the semi-final with a 7-6(4) 6-1 defeat of world number six Milos Raonic.

Zverev, 20, will face John Isner for a place in the final after the American beat Croatian Marin Cilic 7-6(3) 2-6 7-6(2).

“It’s another stepping stone in my career,” Zverev told the ATP’s website. “I feel like I have played very well today. I returned very well.

“So I’m happy to be in the semis and playing John tomorrow, it’s going to be a great match.”

● Romanian sixth seed Simona Halep swept into the semi-finals of the Italian Open in Rome by beating Estonian qualifier Anett Kontaveit 6-2 6-4 on Friday.

She will now play Dutch 15th seed Kiki Bertens, who saw off Australian qualifier Daria Gavrilova 6- 3 6- 3, in today’s semi-final on the red Foro Italico clay.

“Today was a good match, but I can say that I could finish earlier in the second set,” said Halep, who raced to a 3-0 lead in the first set and broke Kontaveit in the opening game of the second before winning.

“But ... she came back for a few games, and she played really, really well.”

Eighth seeded Ukrainian Elina Svitolina beat Czech second seed Karolina Pliskova 6-2 7-6(9) and will meet either third seed and French Open champion Garbine Muguruza or ninth seed Venus Williams in the last four.