Thiem ousts top-seeded Nadal in Madrid

Rafael Nadal has found a worthy rival on clay.

Dominic Thiem beat the topranked Nadal 7-5, 6-3 in the Madrid Open quarterfinals on Friday, breaking the defending champion’s run of 21 straight wins on clay courts.

Nadal hadn’t lost a single set on clay since falling to Thiem a year ago in the Italian Open quarterfinals.

But Thiem succeeded in doing the nearly impossible with his deep drives: make Nadal look sluggish and a step slow on clay.

Nadal will lose his world No. 1 ranking to Roger Federer because of the defeat.

“Of course I am disappointed,” Nadal said. “I tried to fight back but I wasn’t good enough and he was better. Dominic has a lot of potential. Whenever he plays really well, it is difficult to stop him.”

Since last year’s loss to Thiem, Nadal had been impeccable on his preferred surface. He won the French Open and the hard-court U.S. Open to take his Grand Slam haul to 16, and he came to the Spanish capital fresh off winning his 11th titles at both Monte Carlo and Barcelona.

Thiem will face sixth-seeded Kevin Anderson in the semifinals. Anderson hit 15 aces to down Dusan Lajovic 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-3.

Second-seeded Alexander Zverev beat seventh-seeded John Isner 6-4, 7-5 to also advance.

Zverev will face Denis Shapovalov after he outlasted Kyle Edmund 7-5, 6-7 (6), 6-4.

On the women’s side, two-time former Madrid champion Petra Kvitova beat Karolina Pliskova 7-6 (4), 6-3 in an all-Czech semifinal.

Kvitova will meet Kiki Bertens in the final after she beat seventhseeded Caroline Garcia 6-2, 6-2.

The No. 12-seeded UCLA women’s tennis team opened its record 37th straight appearance in the NCAA tournament with a 4-0 victory over Fresno State at Los Angeles Tennis Center. With the sweep, the Bruins (21-5) advance to face No. 25-ranked Baylor (18-13) — which defeated No. 36 North Carolina State — in the Los Angeles Regional final on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m.

No. 12 Pepperdine (23-2) dominated Idaho (15-7) 4-0 to advance and will face No. 18 Kansas at noon in Malibu. this season and the second in the series. The Las Vegas driver swept the first two stages after starting from the pole for the second week in a row.

Car owner Busch overcame late contact with Stewart Friesen to finish second, 1.558 seconds back.

Kevin Harvick kept his hot streak going by qualifying on the pole for Saturday night’s Monster Energy Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway.

Will Power has won his third IndyCar Grand Prix pole by turning a fast lap of 1 minute 9.8182 seconds on his final qualifying run.

The Toronto Maple Leafs promoted Kyle Dubas, who at 32 becomes one of the NHL’s youngest general managers.

Captain Patrick Kane scored two goals and added three assists as the United States demolished South Korea 13-1 at the ice hockey world championship for a fifth straight victory.

The Czech Republic shut out Belarus 3-0, and Denmark closed in on a quarterfinal berth after beating Norway, also 3-0.

Also, France defeated newcomer Austria 5-2 to stay in contention.

The NCAA approved a rule limiting the number of people who can communicate through headsets during a game to 20 per team, including 15 coaches.

The Sparks will play China’s national team at 2 p.m. Saturday at Pasadena City College in their final preseason game. The Sparks open the WNBA season with a threegame trip, beginning May 20 against the defending champion Minnesota Lynx. The Sparks’ home opener will be May 27 against the Phoenix Mercury.

Brazil right back Dani Alves will miss the World Cup, leaving the five-time World Cup champions without one of their main leaders.