Rafael Nadal of Spain held on for his 70th straight clay-court
win on Friday, beating Italian Potito Starace 6-2 and 7-5 to reach
the semi-finals of the Barcelona Open tennis tournament.
The 20-year-old king of clay lost serve while leading a set and
5-4, but he broke number 72 Starace straight back to seal the match
after one hour and 24 minutes.
He will face fifth seed David Ferrer, who defeated Argentine
David Nalbandian 7-6 (5) and 6-2, in a semi-final.
Nadal, winner of the last two French Open crowns at Roland
Garros, has won 11 clay court finals in which he has appeared in
since a quarter-final loss to Igor Andreev on April 2005 in
Valencia.
The Spaniard improved to 25-5 for 2007 with Masters Series
titles in the past month at Indian Wells and Monte Carlo.
Nadal needs two more victories to become the second player in
Barcelona history to win three consecutive titles, Sweden's Mats
Wilander achieving the feat in 1982-1984.
Meanwhile, 12th seed Guillermo Canas had an easy walkover
against second seed Nikolay Davydenko in the quarter-final.
"After my match last night, I had a deep massage on my wrist and
elbow but it ended up blocking some nerves in my wrist," said the
Russian, "I can't move the fingers on my right hand very well and
am unable to play."
Canas will face 15th seed Agustin Galleri of Argentina who beat
unknown Spaniard Oscar Hernandez 6-0, 6-3.
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(Xinhua News Agency April 28, 2007)