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Madrid: Nadal dismisses Alcaraz, Barty & Sabalenka into semis

  • Matt Trollope

In a clash between the present and future of Spanish tennis, Rafaal Nadal dropped just three games in beating teenage countryman Carlos Alcaraz on Wednesday in Madrid. 

Nadal’s 6-1 6-2 win over Alcaraz – on the latter’s 18th birthday – sets up a third-round meeting with Australian qualifier Alexei Popyrin, who recovered from 5-3 down in the first set to upset No.14 seed Jannik Sinner 7-6(5) 6-2.

"I'm just going to go out and have fun," Popyrin said of lining up a clash with Nadal. "He's the greatest of all time on clay court."

Fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas replicated Nadal’s scoreline in a demolition of Benoit Paire while No.2 seed Daniil Medvedev snapped a two-year, six-match clay-court losing streak with a 4-6 6-4 6-2 victory over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. 

World No.1 Ash Barty, meanwhile, extended her clay-court winning streak to eight matches with a compelling three-set win over Petra Kvitova. 

Barty triumphed 6-1 3-6 6-3 and in the semifinals will play Spanish wildcard Paula Badosa, who stunned eighth seed Belinda Bencic to continue her magical Madrid run. 

Badosa beat Barty just recently in the Charleston quarterfinals – the Australian’s only loss in 11 clay-court matches this season.

In the other half of the draw, Aryna Sabalenka continued her dominant progress through the draw, racing to a 6-1 4-0 lead over Elise Mertens before the Belgian retired due to a hamstring injury.

A day earlier, Mertens had won a physical three-set bout with world No.3 Simona Halep.

“I'm really happy that I kind of destroy her in the first set,” Sabalenka said. “Then something happened with her leg. I feel really sorry for this, and I hope that she will get better soon.

“I worked so hard to play on this level, and I'm really happy that the work we did before the clay court season, it's really working well.”

Sabalenka, who has dropped just 13 games throughout four matches in Madrid, advances to face Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who ended the run of AO 2021 semifinalist Karolina Muchova in two tiebreaks. 

The women’s semifinals will take place on Thursday at Manolo Santana Stadium, alongside men’s third-round action. 

Nadal delivers tennis lesson

After saving a break point in the opening game, Nadal set to work dismantling Alcaraz, at one stage winning 12 straight points en route to a 5-0 lead. 

The wildcard got on the board in the sixth game to avoid a bagel but ended the set with just one winner against 13 unforced errors. 

Nadal established a 3-0 lead in the second set and cruised to victory in one hour and 17 minutes.

Despite the loss there was some consolation for Alcaraz, in the form of a giant birthday cake which was presented to him on court.

“When you make a salad and you are putting ingredients inside the salad, he has, I mean, plenty of ingredients to become a great player,” Nadal said of his young compatriot.

“Even if was not a comfortable start against a very young and great player like Carlos, I think I played a solid match and I did what I had to do to be through, no? 

“So very happy about the performance today.”

In other men’s second-round results, Aslan Karatsev improved his season win-loss record to a stunning 22-5 after recovering from 6-2 2-0 down to beat seventh seed Diego Schwartzman – a repeat of his result against the Argentine at AO 2021. 

Casper Ruud continued his impressive progress with a 6-1 6-2 win over Yoshihito Nishioka to set up a meeting with Tsitsipas, whose clay-court record in 2021 now stands at 10-1 following his 54-minute dissection of Paire.

John Isner saved a match point to upset No.9 seed Roberto Bautista Agut 6-4 6-7(4) 7-6(6), while Dan Evans notched a three-set win over John Millman to set a last-16 clash with fifth seed Alexander Zverev, who dismissed Kei Nishikori for the loss of five games.