Bad day for Rafael Nadal, beaten in the quarter-finals of the Madrid tournament by Alexander Zverev. – Gabriel Bouys / AFP
Of course, it is too early to evoke an end of reign, three weeks before the start of Roland-Garros. But the facts are there: Rafael Nadal bit the clay of Madrid this Friday in the quarter-finals. Dominated in two sets by the German Alexander Zverev (6-4, 6-4), he will not win his sixth title in this Masters 1000 on Sunday.
The 34-year-old Mallorcan had already yielded on his favorite surface against Andrey Rublev, in mid-April in Monte-Carlo, at the same stadium. In the meantime, the world number 2 had won the Masters 500 in Barcelona, tearing off in the final against the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, another representative of the new generation, after saving a match point. For Rafa, the road to a 14th Porte d’Auteuil coronation promises to be strewn with pitfalls.
Zverev-Thiem in the semi-final
And Zverev in all of this? The 24-year-old German, winner of the 2018 edition, will find Dominic Thiem in the semifinals, who got rid of the American bomber John Isner in three sets (3-6, 6-3, 6-4).