Rafael Nadal powered past Cameron Norrie 6-1 6-4 to reach his 13th semi-final in Barcelona.
Nadal played his best match of the week as he punished his British opponent who played perfectly into his hands.
The 11-time champion will now play Pablo Carreno Busta or Diego Schwartzman in the last four on Saturday.
In a match that he wouldn’t particularly enjoy, Norrie showed some promise in the early stages with some aggressive play testing Nadal’s confidence in the early goings.
There was some nice court-coverage and point construction as the Brit looked to test the Nadal defence early on.
However Norrie hit Nadal with his best shot and still didn’t blow the Nadal house down as the 11-time champion took control using some good angles and ridiculous down-the-line shots.
After the early break in the fifth game it was really comfortable Nadal who showed more aggression in the forecourt and displayed real clay-court dominance.
A 6-1 set gave Nadal reason to believe that there was no way he was losing today.
Early glimpses of the second set gave a similar signal as he capitalised on early cautious play from the Brit, who’s flat groundstrokes were eaten up by the world number three.
A break at 2-1 saw Nadal in the driving set as even his returns had Ferrari-like pace on them zipping through the Barcelona sun.
Late resistance from Norrie saw him take advantage of Nadal’s inability to control the latter stages of matches as the match was back at 4-4.
However Nadal wasn’t determined to let this match slip from his plastered fingers as two games in a row secured his place in the last four.
Next up for the Spaniard will be either Marbella champion Pablo Carreno Busta or Diego Schwartzman.
