Rafael Nadal and Kei Nishikori moved nearer to a Catalan clay showdown as the leading seeds booked their spots in the semi-finals of the Barcelona Open yesterday.
Nadal was wary heading into his quarter-final with dangerman Fabio Fognini after the 12th seed beat him three times in 2015, including the Barcelona third round. Nadal ended last season 2-3 against the drop-shotting Italian, the last man to beat him on the clay of the Real Club de Tenis.
Second-seed Nishikori got through a 51-minute first set but revved up his game afterwards to beat Alexandr Dolgopolov 7-5, 6-0 for his third straight semi-final at the event. Asia’s top player, undefeated in 13 consecutive Barcelona matches after winning the last two editions, will play for the final against French sixth seed Benoit Paire, who bounced back over Malek Jaziri 3-6, 7-5, 6-1.
Nadal had to hold off Fognini in the second set after the Spaniard lost his way while leading a set and a break. With Fognini breaking back for 2-2, life suddenly got more complicated. Nadal lost serve again in the fifth game and found himself in a tiebreaker after his opponent saved three match points in the 12th game—all with clean winners.
But the form ran out for Fognini in the decider as Nadal earned 5-0, was caught by a lob for 1-5 and finished off the win a point later from a Fognini error. Nadal stands 49-3 at his home tournament.
Nishikori needed almost an hour to win the opening set against 11th seed Dolgopolov, his frequent practice partner. Saving four set-points in the 10th game to level at 5-5 and then breaking for 6-5 put Nishikori into a winning position, with the number six claiming the win a game later. Dolgopolov was felled by 32 unforced errors as he lost for the fifth time without winning as much as a set against the seed.
Paire beat Jaziri, the only unseeded quarter-finalist, after two hours of battle under cloudy skies and temperatures of an unseasonable 16-17 Celsius.

Kerber cruises into semis

Defending champion Angelique Kerber delighted a German home crowd when she crushed Spanish seventh seed Carla Suarez Navarro 6-2, 6-4 for a place in the Porsche Grand Prix semi-finals yesterday.
World number 3 Kerber claimed her fourth win in six meetings with Suarez Navarro in 1 hour 12 minutes, remaining on course for her second title of the year following a surprise success at the Australian Open in January.
Between her and a place in the final stands two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova as the fifth-seeded Czech ousted Spanish third seed Garbine Muguruza 6-1, 3-6, 6-0. Kvitova leads the series with Kerber 4-3.
The other quarter-finals pit top seed Agnieszka Radwanska against Karolina Pliskova and sixth seed Roberta Vinci against German qualifier Laura Siegemund.
Suarez Navarro beat Kerber in their only previous encounter on clay, in the second round of the same tournament in 2014, but the German was in command this time around with 35 winners to her opponent’s 16.
Kerber raced off to a 3-0 lead and clinched the first set with another break in the eighth game when Suarez Navarro’s backhand fell long. She got the breakthrough for 4-2 in the second, and, although she dropped serve for the first time in the ninth game, wrapped up matters with another break in the next game for victory on another backhand error from Suarez Navarro.