Rafael Nadal of Spain held on for his 70th straight clay-court win on Friday, beating Italian Potito Starace 6-2 and 7-5 to reach the semi-finals of the Barcelona Open tennis tournament.

The 20-year-old king of clay lost serve while leading a set and 5-4, but he broke number 72 Starace straight back to seal the match after one hour and 24 minutes.

He will face fifth seed David Ferrer, who defeated Argentine David Nalbandian 7-6 (5) and 6-2, in a semi-final.

Nadal, winner of the last two French Open crowns at Roland Garros, has won 11 clay court finals in which he has appeared in since a quarter-final loss to Igor Andreev on April 2005 in Valencia.

The Spaniard improved to 25-5 for 2007 with Masters Series titles in the past month at Indian Wells and Monte Carlo.

Nadal needs two more victories to become the second player in Barcelona history to win three consecutive titles, Sweden's Mats Wilander achieving the feat in 1982-1984.

Meanwhile, 12th seed Guillermo Canas had an easy walkover against second seed Nikolay Davydenko in the quarter-final.

"After my match last night, I had a deep massage on my wrist and elbow but it ended up blocking some nerves in my wrist," said the Russian, "I can't move the fingers on my right hand very well and am unable to play."

Canas will face 15th seed Agustin Galleri of Argentina who beat unknown Spaniard Oscar Hernandez 6-0, 6-3.
 
(Xinhua News Agency April 28, 2007)