BARCELONA — Rafael Nadal's clay-court woes mounted Thursday at the Barcelona Open with another loss. The eight-time champion fell to Fabio Fognini 6-4, 7-6 (6) in the third round, a year after his 41-match winning streak in Barcelona ended in the quarterfinals.
After dropping the first set, Nadal appeared to have rebounded by breaking the Italian 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 went ahead, and Nadal drove a shot long for only his third loss at the tournament.
"I played poorly, I didn't play like I should have," Nadal said. "I didn't play aggressively, I missed more shots that I normally do. I didn't manage to keep the advantage I had. Having three breaks in the second set and end up at 5-5 is a disaster.
"This is a blow for me, but I accept the challenge and the negative day I had today. There is no other way forward other than to accept it or die."
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 who 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 will next play Roberto Bautista Agut after the Spaniard defeated 10th-seeded Pablo Cuevas 7-6 (5), 6-2.
Ferrer will meet Philipp Kohlschreiber after he ousted Benoit Paire of France 6-4, 7-6 (6).
Martin Klizan of Slovakia also joined the final eight after ending Victor Estrella's strong start to the tournament with a 6-4, 6-3 victory. Klizan will meet Tommy Robredo in the final eight after he dispensed with Marcel Granollers of Spain 6-2, 6-2.
Kvitova upset in Stuttgart
World No. 4 Petra Kvitova suffered a shock defeat in the WTA Stuttgart tournament Thursday, beaten in straight sets by unseeded American Madison Brengle 6-3, 7-6 (7/2).
Kvitova, who took a six-week break to recover from exhaustion, resumed training three weeks ago and won both her Fed Cup semi-final singles rubbers as the Czechs beat France 3-1 last weekend.
The unseeded American, who reached the last 16 at the Australian Open in January, will next face France's Caroline Garcia who put out Carina Witthoeft of Germany 7-6 (7/4), 6-2.
Fourth seed Caroline Wozniacki defeated Czech veteran Lucie Safarova 7-6 (7/5), 6-1 in her first outing of the clay court season. Also, Ekaterina Makarova of Russia and Sara Errani of Italy advanced.
Monfils in quarterfinals Second-seeded Gael Monfils advanced to the quarterfinals of the Nastase Tiriac Trophy by beating Mikhail Youzhny 6-1, 6-2 Thursday.
It was the Frenchman's first win over Youzhny in their fourth meeting. Monfils will next face eighth-seeded Simone Bolelli, who advanced to the quarterfinals for the third time this year by beating Andreas Haider-Maurer 6-4, 6-4. — Agencies
