Novak Djokovic earned his seventh straight victory over Rafael Nadal as he battled through their quarter-final clash in the Italian Open on Friday.
It was a tight contest between the elite competitors, but Djokovic came out on top in a 7-5 7-6(4) victory, which lasted almost two-and-a-half hours.
It took 72 minutes for the first set to be completed as both players were on their best form on the clay court, but it was Nadal who took the early advantage by going a break up.
The Spaniard looked relatively comfortable with a 4-2 lead, but the world number one fought back to draw 4-4 and it was all to play for again.
Djokovic needed to break to take a set-lead and he managed to do so in dramatic fashion with a perfectly-executed drop shot, which extended his set wins over Nadal to 14 in a row.
Nadal responded instantly by going a break up at the first time of asking in the second set, but he squandered five set points as Djokovic broke to draw 5-5.
A tie-break was required to separate the two competitors, and Djokovic edged ahead with a break of serve before seeing off the Spaniard and booking a place in the semi-finals.
Danielle Joynson
