Staff Reporter.
Rafael Nadal saved two match points to overcome a huge test from Denis Shapovalov and reach the Italian Open quarter-finals.
The Spaniard was a set and a break down but outlasted the Canadian to win 3-6 6-4 7-6 (7-3) in a near three-and-a-half-hour contest.
Nadal, chasing a 10th title in Rome, forced a third-set tie-break by saving match points at 6-5.
Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic reached his 15th Rome quarter-final in a row.
The world number one and defending champion dropped his opening serve but recovered immediately to beat Spanish qualifier Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-2 6-1.
Nadal will bid for a record 21st men’s Grand Slam singles title at the French Open starting on 30 May, as well as a record-extending 14th Roland Garros title.
He may have won this match on Thursday but it still raised question marks over the Spaniard’s form before the French Open, even if his determination to win was as strong as ever.
He was beaten in the Madrid quarter-finals by Alexander Zverev last week and at the same stage in Monte Carlo by Andrey Rublev last month.
Although he won the Barcelona title in April, Nadal had to save a championship point to beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final.
Against 22-year-old Shapovalov he saved a break point that would have put the Canadian 4-0 up in the second set and also went a break down in the third set. That, alongside some struggles with his serve and the match points he faced, were yet more dents in the aura of invincibility he has exuded on the clay for so many years.
Nadal, 34, will face German sixth seed Zverev or Japan’s Kei Nishikori for a place in the semi-finals.