Nadal loses to Thiem in Madrid

MADRID — Rafael Nadal has found a worthy rival on clay. Dominic Thiem beat the top-ranked 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.

Nadal, however, said the loss was not a reason to doubt his chances to add to his 10 French Open titles in the coming weeks.

“I won 50 straight sets on this surface,” he said. “Today I lost the match. It was not my day. But that is part of the sport. So I can’t go back to my hotel and think that I have to do a lot of things different to prepare for the next events because that wouldn’t be smart.”