Rafael Nadal sent tumbling out of Argentina Open

Defending champion Rafael Nadal suffered a shock defeat by Dominic Thiem in the semi-finals of the Argentina Open in Buenos Aires.

Nadal finished 2015 in decent form and was optimistic of better times ahead this year but so far they have not materialised.

A chastening loss to Novak Djokovic in the final in Doha was followed by a first-round defeat by Fernando Verdasco at the Australian Open.

Nadal had won his only previous clash with Thiem comfortably on clay at the French Open in 2014 but this was a different story as the Austrian prevailed 6-4 4-6 7-6 (7/4).

Thiem is the youngest player in the top 20 and the 22-year-old showed his growing maturity by coming through a tight third set.

After seeing an early break slip away, the world number 19 saved a match point at 4-5 with a brave forehand and then took advantage of Nadal errors to dominate the tie-break.

Earlier, David Ferrer won a rain-delayed quarter-final against Pablo Cuevas 6-4 1-6 6-3.