Dominic Thiem dumps Nadal out of Italian Open

Austria's Dominic Thiem dumped seven-times champion Rafael Nadal out of the Italian Open 6-4 6-3 on Friday to reach the semi-finals. 

Beaten twice by Nadal in the last three weeks, in Barcelona and in Madrid, Thiem made it third time lucky against the 30-year-old Spanish favourite, who was unbeaten on clay this year with 17 straight wins.

Thiem will now play world number two Novak Djokovic or Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro. 

On the other hand, rising German star Alexander Zverev earlier reached his first ATP Masters 1000 semi-final with a 7-6(4) 6-1 defeat of world number six Milos Raonic. 

Zverev, 20, will face John Isner for a place in the final after the American beat Croatian Marin Cilic 7-6(3) 2-6 7-6(2).