Nadal cruises to semi-final date

RAFAEL NADAL continued his claycourt dominance yesterday by breezing into the semi-finals of the Mercedes Cup with a 6-1 6-3 victory over Argentinian Juan Monaco in Stuttgart.

It was the third consecutive straight-sets victory for Nadal, who won this tournament in 2005 before opting to not enter the event last year to prepare for the hardcourt season.

So far, Nadal’s return has been quite easy, as the world number two has dropped just 12 of 48 games in this event.

Nadal has been virtually unbeatable on clay, losing only once in his last 92 matches on the surface dating back to 2005. The southpaw’s only claycourt loss in that stretch was against world number one Roger Federer in the ATP Masters Series final at Hamburg on May 20.

Nadal’s next opponent will be countryman Feliciano Lopez, who upset sixth seed Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain 6-4 3-6 6-4.

Lopez also shocked number three Tomas Berdych in the second round on Thursday.

Although he has split his two previous matches with Lopez, Nadal won the only meeting on clay in straight sets in Barcelona last year.

In the lower half of the draw, Spaniard Fernando Verdasco was unable to follow up on his upset of defending champion and fourth seed David Ferrer, falling to number seven Juan Ignacio Chela, 2-6 6-3 6-2.

Chela, who was coming off a three-set win over Boris Pashanski on Wednesday, set up a meeting with Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka, a 6-1 6-4 winner over Jiri Vanek of Czech Republic.