Rafal Nadal had left the tournaments in the United States in the past few weeks to concentrate fully on the games on clay. The Spanish top player is aiming for a 13th title at Roland Garros at the end of this month.
As a warm-up he could win Rome a 10th time. Diego Schwartzman put a stop to that. After 9 defeats in as many matches, the Argentinian got the code of Nadal cracked once.
Schwartzman scored 31 winners. Nadal did just the opposite and made mistakes. Only 43 percent of his first serve paid off.
A new final against Novak Djokovic is therefore not coming in Rome. The number 1 forced, with some effort, a place in the last 4.
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