Nadal sets up meeting with Djokovic at Madrid Open

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Djokovic had an even easier day as he moved into the last four without hitting a ball on Friday as Kei Nishikori withdrew with a wrist injury.

Asia's top player next faces Spain's David Ferrer, who advanced when Jo-Wilfried Tsonga withdrew prior to their match with a right shoulder injury.

On the women's side, third-seeded Simona Halep of Romania reached the semifinals by beating Coco Vandeweghe of the USA 6-1, 6-1 in less than an hour.

In game 5 Nick held after 3 deuces, taking a 12-stroke rally to at least get his name on the scoreboard, but Nadal sealed the deal with another break in game 7, after a huge forehand error from Nick.

The other quarterfinal will be played between Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay, who defeated Benoit Paire of France 7-5, 0-6, 6-1, and Alexander Zverev of Germany, who beat Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-4.

The world number two stepped out onto Manolo Santana Court for only the second time without his tightly-knit coaching staff, having split with the trio before the tournament commenced at the beginning of the week.

"I wasn't expecting myself to play well this week at all", said Kyrgios, who had to pull out of last week's Estoril Open to attend his grandfather's funeral. When you play people that are so good it always makes you give 100 percent. In his first clay-court tournament, in Monte Carlo, Djokovic was eliminated by David Goffin in quarterfinals. He was beaten by qualifier Denis Istomin in the second round of the Australian Open.

Dirk Kuyt scored a hat-trick as Feyenoord won the Eredivisie title
Feyenoord will represent the Netherlands in the next Champions League, while Ajax will start in the qualifying tournament. The club also is a two-time victor of the UEFA Cup, in 1974 and 2002. "I am so happy for him", Van Bronckhorst said.

A finalist in Madrid in 2014, Nishikori lost his last 10 matches against Djokovic, including in the semifinals in Madrid previous year. 'I can not promise to play or pull out right now.

Halep faces Latvian Anastasija Sevastova in Friday's semi-finals after the world number 22 saw off Kiki Bertens 6-3, 6-3.

Halep has yet to win an ATP title this year, but victory against either Svetlana Kuznetsova or Kristina Mladenovic in Saturday's (Sunday NZT) final at the Caja Majica would see her climb to fourth in the rankings.

The Briton played poorly in the first set, losing three service games and looking increasingly frustrated.

Djokovic has only faced one match against the "Big Four" in 2017, where he beat Murray in the Qatar Open final, and it's perhaps a contest like this that's needed to raise his game back to the lofty standards shown in his run to total Grand Slam domination that peaked with his first French Open title in 2016.

Nadal served first, racing to a 30-0 lead before Kyrgios made an early declaration of intent with a stunning two-handed return.

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