Nadal's clay court dominance takes hit with loss to Fognini
BARCELONA, Spain -- Rafael Nadal's clay-court woes mounted Thursday at the Barcelona Open with another loss.
The eight-time champion lost to Fabio Fognini 6-4, 7-6 (6) in the third round, a year after his 41-match winning streak ended in the quarterfinals.
After losing the first set, Nadal appeared to have rebounded by breaking his Italian opponent three times in the second set, but Fognini answered each time.
In the tiebreaker, Nadal trailed 6-3 but came back to 6-6. Fognini then went ahead and Nadal drove a shot long for only his third loss at the tournament.
After winning their first four career meetings, Nadal has lost twice to Fognini this year on his preferred surface.
Nadal, a nine-time French Open champion, was trying to rebound from last week's loss to Novak Djokovic at the Monte Carlo Masters.
The 28-year-old Nadal has now failed to reclaim his title at two tournaments he has won a record eight times, casting doubt on his ability to defend the French Open title.
The 13th-seeded Fognini, who had never won a match at the Real Club de Tennis before winning his second-round opener, will next face Pablo Andujar of Spain. Andujar beat Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 6-4.
Earlier, defending champion Kei Nishikori advanced by beating Santiago Giraldo of Colombia 6-2, 6-1, and four-time finalist David Ferrer defeated Swedish 19-year-old Elias Ymer 6-3, 6-4.
Nishikori beat Giraldo last year in straight sets to win his first clay-court title in Barcelona, and the top-seeded Japanese player had little trouble repeating his victory after converting five of nine break points.
Nishikori will next play Roberto Bautista Agut next after the Spaniard defeated 10th-seeded Pablo Cuevas 7-6 (5), 6-2.
Ferrer appeared set to roll to a lopsided win over Ymer after taking a 5-0 lead. But even though Ymer ceded the first set, he won seven of the next eight games to go up 4-0 in the second.
Ferrer surged back to win six straight games, and closed out the match by claiming 11 of the last 12 points.
Martin Klizan also joined the final eight after ending 34-year-old Victor Estrella's strong start to the tournament with a 6-4, 6-3 victory.
