Rafael Nadal's clay-court swing is not unfolding as he would have wanted, suffering the quarter-final losses in Monte Carlo and Madrid and battling past Stefanos Tsitsipas for the Barcelona Open crown.
On Friday, Nadal suffered a tough 6-4, 6-4 loss to Alexander Zverev at Caja Magica, failing to go all the way at the home Masters 1000 event for the third straight time. Rafa won the opening five matches against Alexander, including three on clay, and the German took charge under the roof in Paris and London in the last two years.
Zverev has now scored three straight wins over the 20-time Major champion, becoming the tenth player to achieve that on the ATP Tour, joining Hrbaty, Gaudio, Blake, Hewitt, Berdych, Djokovic, del Potro, Davydenko and Federer. Alexander is the third player who achieved that streak on two different surfaces after Dominik Hrbaty and Novak Djokovic, making his achievement even more unique.
Nadal made a good start at Caja Magica and opened a 4-2 advantage before Zverev bounced back, taking ten of the last 14 games to sail over the finish line and advance into the semis. Nadal scored only one break and experienced three poor service games, never finding the rhythm and landing only six winners in comparison to almost 30 from his opponent.
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