Almagro ends Nadal’s Barcelona winning streak

BARCELONA: Top-ranked Rafael Nadal’s clay-court struggles worsened Friday as his 41-match winning streak at the Barcelona Open ended with a three-set loss to Nicolas Almagro in the quarterfinals.
Nadal was looking for his ninth title in Barcelona but lost 2-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4, a week after going out in the quarterfinals of the Monte Carlo Masters at the same stage.
Almagro converted his second match point, smashing a forehand down the line for his first career victory over his fellow Spaniard on the 11th try.
Nadal hadn’t lost at the tournament since his debut as a 15-year-old in 2003.
Almagro will play either Philipp Kohlschreiber or Santiago Giraldo in the semifinals.
Earlier, Japan’s Kei Nishikori continued his impressive return to action after a three-week absence due to a groin injury as he beat 12th seed Marin Cilic 6-1, 6-3 to reach the Barcelona Open semifinals on Friday.
Nishikori, seeded fourth, was ruthless in the opening set as he broke the big Croat’s serve three times.
The second set was more of a contest, but the world number 17 still had too much as he sealed victory in just over an hour to register his best ever run in Barcelona.
Next up for Nishikori will be a meeting with Latvian Ernests Gulbis after he secured a third semifinal appearance of the season with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Russia’s Teimuraz Gabashvili.

Sharapova in last four

In Stuttgart, defending champion Maria Sharapova marched into the semifinals of Stuttgart’s WTA tournament with a 6-4, 6-3 win over top-seed Agnieszka Radwanska in Friday’s quarterfinals.
Her semifinal opponent will be eight-seeded Sara Errani, who was leading 6-3, 6-7 (6), 3-0 when Carla Suarez Navarro retired with a hand injury.
“That was a big win for me,” admitted Sharapova after picking up her 11th straight win in Stuttgart where she is bidding for a hat-trick of titles having won the 2012 and 2013 tournaments.
Sharapova claimed her ninth win in 11 matches against world number three Radwanska of Poland, but the statuesque Russian did not have things her own way, despite needing only one hour, 39 minutes to claim victory.
After a total of seven breaks at the start of the match, as the momentum swung back and forth, Sharapova finally won her first service game to take control of the first set.
“That was one of the key moments,” she said after eventually needing eight match points to claim the win.
Having won all four Grand Slams, Sharapova is bidding to claim a personal landmark this week in Stuttgart by winning a tournament three times in succession.
Victory bought an extra bonus for the Russian as failure to beat Radwanska would have seen Sharapova fall out of the top ten for the first time in three years.