Eight-time Rome champion Rafael Nadal cruised past his compatriot Fernando Verdasco 6-4 6-0 after 1 hour and 38 minutes in an all-Spanish quarter final clash to get through to the Rome semifinal for the 12th time in his career. Nadal had already beaten Verdasco 6-3 6-3 in the quarter final in the 2009 edition of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.
Nadal has improved to 17-3 in his 20 head-to-head matches against Verdasco. Nadal saved eight of the nine bbreak points he faced and converted five of his eight chances.
Verdasco broke Nadal in the first game with a forehand down the line winner. The Spanish 35-year-old player fended off two break points in the second game to hold his service game. He wasted a double break chance for 3-0, as he netted a backhand on a break point.
Nadal broke back in the sixth game to draw level to 3-3. Verdasco brought up three break point chances in the ninth game at 4-4 with a forehand winner, but Nadal saved them before breaking serve at 15 in the 10th game to seal the opening set 6-4 after a forehand error from Verdasco in 61 minutes.
Nadal took full control of the match and won the second set by a bagel. Nadal went up a break in the second game when Verdasco made a backhand error. Nadal fended off three break points in the next game before earning a double break with a backhand down the line to race out to a 4-0 lead. Nadal held serve at love before closing out the match at 15 in the sixth game to reach his fourth consecutive semifinal on clay this season.
Nadal has taken a bagel set for the third consecutive match this week after beating Jeremy Chardy 6-0 6-1 in the second round and Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-1 6-0 in the third round.
Nadal set up a second consecutive semifinal at Masters 1000 level against Stefanos Tsitsipas, who received a walkover into the semifinal after Roger Federer withdrew from the tournament due to a right leg injury. At last week’s Madrid Mutua Open Tsitsipas beat Nadal to score his first win in their four head-to-head matches.
