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Nalbandian crushes Nadal at Madrid Masters

David Nalbandian capitalized on an error-prone Rafael Nadal and beat the second-ranked Spaniard 6-1, 6-2 on Friday to reach the semi-finals at the Madrid Masters.

Nadal, playing in his first tournament in five weeks after suffering tendinitis in both knees, hit five winners but had 29 unforced errors against Nalbandian.

"It's not an easy match to analyze. It's hard to play worse, which makes it a lot easier to go forward from this," Nadal said. "I didn't go in with a clear enough idea of the match I wanted to play."

It was Nadal's most lopsided loss since Julien Benneteau beat him 6-3, 6-0 in Lyon three years ago.

"I took advantage of all of Rafa's bad shots," Nalbandian said. "I think Rafa never felt comfortable out there."

The 33rd-ranked Argentine was next due to play Novak Djokovic, who earlier beat Mario Ancic of Croatia 7-6 (2), 6-2.

Roger Federer defeated Feliciano Lopez 7-6 (4), 6-4 to set up a matchup against 112th-ranked Nicolas Kiefer, who beat the fifth seed, Fernando Gonzalez, 7-6 (5), 6-2.

Lopez hit 28 winners in saving 10 break chances, but the Spanish wild card also committed 34 unforced errors.

Nadal was slow against Nalbandian's groundstrokes and was broken by the third game.

A double fault in the fifth set up another break chance for the Argentine with Nalbandian's forehand clipping the net to skip beyond Nadal for 4-1.

After holding at love, Nalbandian reached Nadal's overhead smash for a crosscourt winner and the set.

Nadal's inactivity appeared to manifest itself when he looped returns out of play or into the net, including on Nalbandian's break point chance in the second game.

Nalbandian reached his first semi-final of the year.

Federer remained unbeaten in six meetings with Lopez.

"I created so many chances," Federer said. "Maybe he got a little frustrated midway through the second set and maybe he gave me some easier points. And maybe that kept it from going to a second tiebreraker."

Lopez battled all match to hold his serve, saving five times in the eighth game as they went to deuce eight times. Lopez finally won with an ace.

After missing two set-point chances, Federer just got his racket to the ball to drop it inside the line to take the tiebreaker.

After both players held serve to start the second set, Federer scored the only break in the ninth game, pushing Lopez's volley past him to clinch it with a triple-break advantage. The defending champion won at love to complete the victory.

Djokovic's serve bailed him out of tight spots in the first set, and the third-seeded Serb broke twice in the second to close it out.

Gonzalez earned a break in the third game against Kiefer but the German immediately broke back. Both held serve until the tiebreaker, where Kiefer's powerful strokes frustrated Gonzalez into unforced errors.

The Chilean couldn't recover and Kiefer finished him off in one hour, 39 minutes.
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