Nadal suffers shock loss while Edmund run ends
Rafael Nadal refused to make excuses after his record-breaking winning streak came to an end at the hands of Dominic Thiem in the Madrid Open quarterfinals.
Nadal will also lose his world No 1 spot after a 7-5, 6-3 defeat by the Austrian which brings to an end his 21-match unbeaten run on his favourite surface.
On Thursday, Nadal’s victory over Diego Schwartzman saw him surpass John Mcenroe’s record of 49 straight set wins on a single surface. But he could not maintain his form and was comfortably beaten by the world No 7, who broke his opponent’s serve five times.
Nadal told atptour.com: “I tried to come back but I wasn’t good enough today. I think I’ve placed myself in a good position. I still have two good weeks on clay then I’ll keep moving forward.”
Nadal lost his world No 1 spot to Roger Federer, who is sitting out the clay court season, but the Spaniard will regain it if he wins the Rome Masters next week.
In the semi-finals Thiem will face South African sixth seed Kevin Anderson, who proved too strong for Serbian qualifier Dusan Lajovic, winning 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 6-3.
Canadian teenager Denis Shapovalov booked his place in the last four after winning a fractious affair against British No 1 Kyle Edmund.
Shapovalov struck to seize the first set against the Briton, who had arrived in the last eight by virtue of stunning back-to-back wins over Novak Djokovic and David Goffin respectively.
Edmund was briefly distracted by a member of the crowd shouting out towards the end of the second set, but he managed to save a match point before battling through a tight tie-break to force a decider.
But Shapovalov gained the decisive break in the third game of the set and maintained his advantage to win 7-5, 6-7 (8/6), 6-4.
In the women’s singles, two-time former Madrid champion Petra Kvitova defeated fellow Czech Karolina Pliskova 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to reach the final where she will meet Kiki Bertens, who beat seventh seed Caroline Garcia 6-2, 6-2.