Nadal crushes battling Verdasco

World number one Rafael Nadal produced a superbly gritty display to crush an excellent Fernando Verdasco 6-3 6-3 in their Rome Masters quarter-final encounter.
Both players saw their services broken in the opening two games of an absorbing contest, but it was the quality of the tennis rather than the regularity of the mistakes which accounted for both breaks.

The game then went to serve in a series of fantastic games which saw all manner of brilliant lobs, drop-shots and cross-court winners pulled off by both players and it seemed only a matter of time before another break came.

Verdasco went close after earning 15-30 in the sixth game, but Nadal pulled himself back to hold, then promptly broke Verdasco to 15 thanks to a critical lob that gave him 0-30.

Nadal then held to love before breaking Verdasco once again to finish off the first set with a flattering 6-3 scoreline, but straight away the world number six pushed hard to come close to earning a break in the first game of the second set.

Nadal came through that one, but had to dig even deeper in the fifth game as his compatriot won a string of break points with his fantastic shot-making.

Yet the world number one showed his quality, time and again refusing to budge an inch under his opponent's onslaught. He saved four more break points in the game to hold and take the scoreline to 3-2.

After the next few games went with serve, but in the eighth game of the set Verdasco's heavily-strapped left leg began to cause him great pain.

Nadal broke serve to go 5-3 ahead before Verdasco took an injury time-out, and though he was still clearly in pain the world number six battled through the last few points as his compatriot wrapped up an impressive victory.

Nadal will face either Juan Monaco, conqueror of Andy Murray, or Fernando Gonzales in Saturday's semi-final.