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| Rafael Nadal in Monte Carlo on Friday. (AP) |
Monte Carlo: World No. 1 Rafael Nadal stretched his winning streak at the Monte Carlo Masters to 25 matches by beating Ivan Ljubicic 6-3, 6-3 on Friday in his second match of the day, to move one step away from a fifth straight final.
After beating Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador 6-3, 6-0 in a rain-delayed third-round match, the four-time French Open champion showed few signs of fatigue in winning his 19th straight match on clay to reach the semi-finals.
Nadal clinched the match when Ljubicic tried to end a short rally with a backhand winner, which went long.
The Spaniard has won the last four Monte Carlo titles, and has gone on to capture the French Open each time. His last defeat on clay was to Juan Carlos Ferrero in the second round of the Rome Masters in May last year.
Nadal next plays the winner of a later match between the fourth-seeded Andy Murray and No. 8 Nikolay Davydenko.
Also, third-seeded Novak Djokovic reached the semi-finals for the second consecutive year by beating No. 7 Fernando Verdasco of Spain 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 on Friday.
Djokovic broke Verdasco, the Australian Open semi-finalist, in the sixth game of the deciding set and closed out the match on serve.
“I could have finished the job in two sets, but then he came back,” said Djokovic, adding that heavy rain from Thursday made for tricky conditions on the clay. “The courts were really wet. Even today you could feel it. The balls were getting bald and really fast. It was tough to control.”
Djokovic, who reached the semi-finals of the French Open last year, will meet No. 13 Stanislas Wawrinka in the last four after he beat German qualifier Andreas Beck 6-2, 6-4.
Beck saved two match points with aces but a double fault on the third gave Wawrinka the win, and only his second semi-final in a Masters series. He lost to Djokovic in the Rome Masters final last year on clay.
Nadal’s match had been suspended Thursday due to heavy rain, with Lapentti up 1-0 in the first set.
Ljubicic started his day by beating Simone Bolelli of Italy 7-5, 7-6 (7-2), while fourth-seeded Andy Murray overcame a poor start to beat Fabio Fognini of Italy 7-6 (13-11), 6-4 to reach a quarter final on clay for the first time in his career.
The match was split over two days after rain halted Thursday’s play at the start of the second set with Murray leading 1-0 and Fognini serving at 40-40. Davydenko beat No. 12 David Nalbandian of Argentina 6-4, 5-7, 6-3.
Second seed Venus Williams tumbled out of the Family Circle Cup, succumbing 4-6, 6-7 to big-serving German Sabine Lisicki in the third round.
In another upset, Hungarian left-hander Melinda Czink eliminated fourth-seeded Russian Nadia Petrova 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 in a marathon battle lasting just over two and a quarter hours. Russian Elena Dementieva swept aside American Varvara Lepchenko 6-1, 6-1 and fifth-seeded Dane Caroline Wozniacki beat China’s Peng Shuai 6-3, 6-4. (AP)