Nadal’s power show blows Wawrinka away

THIRD seed Rafael Nadal made short work of his Rome Masters quarter-final, progressing to the last four with a 6-4 6-1 win over Stanislas Wawrinka – but the tournament lost another star as Novak Djokovic fell to Fernando Verdasco.

Nadal, a four-time champion in the Italian capital, has been untroubled this week after missing last week’s tournament in Barcelona because of worries over his fragile knees.

He breezed past Philipp Kohlschreiber and Victor Hanescu in the previous two rounds and sent Wawrinka the same way yesterday.