Rafael Nadal is two victories away from lifting the Madrid Open title after seeing through a 6-4 6-2 victory over Tomas Berdych.
© AFP
The two competitors held their serves strongly in the early stages of the first set as games went by the way of serve.
The Spaniard was able to find the first break of the match to take the scoreline to 4-3 and then immediately held to take a comfortable lead.
Just the one break of serve was needed to wrap up the first set for Nadal, who was almost broken by Berdych in his first service game of the second set.
Berdych pushed the game to deuce, but Nadal eventually took the point on advantage to keep his opponent on the back foot.
After the disappointment of losing a break, Berdych succumbed to Nadal in his own service game, which kept the Spaniard on top.
Nadal cruised through from that point on to clinch the set and a place in the semi-finals.
Danielle Joynson
