BASTAD, Sweden — Rafael Nadal held on to reach his first ATP Tour semi-final round in two years by defeating Mariano Navone 6-7 (2), 7-5, 7-5 in a grueling four-hour match at the Nordea Open in Bastad, Sweden.
Nadal had a 5-2 lead in the third set before Navone, of Argentina, twice broke his serve to tie the deciding set at 5-5. But Nadal dropped just one point in the final two games to capture the set.
The Spaniard last appeared in a semi-final in Wimbledon 2022. His opponent in the clay-court semi-final will be Croatian qualifier Duje Ajdukovic, who defeated Thiago Monteiro of Brazil 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.
German Alexander Zverev, the top seed, cruised past eighth-seeded Zhizhen Zhang of China 6-4, 6-3 to post a quarter-finals win in front of his home-country fans at the Hamburg Open.
In the semi-finals, he will meet Spain’s Pedro Martinez, who recorded a 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 win over Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo, the fourth seed.
The second semi-final will feature a match between fifth-seeded Arthur Fils of France and third-seeded Sebastian Baez of Argentina.
Fils defeated Holger Rune of Denmark in a 6-4, 4-1 walkover, while Baez topped Italian Luciano Darden, the seventh seed, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.
No. 1 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece advanced to the semi-finals of the Swiss Open with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Italian Fabio Fognini, the seventh seed, in just 68 minutes.
Awaiting him in the next round is another Italian, sixth-seeded Matteo Berrettini, who defeated third-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada 7-6 (7), 7-6 (2).
Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff, the fifth seed, topped the fourth seed, Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina 7-5, 3-6, 6-3. In the semis, Struff will face Frenchman Quentin Halys, who defeated Gustavo Heide of Brazil 6-1, 7-5 in a clash of unseeded players.
