Third seed Rafael Nadal edged a step closer to his tenth ATP 500 Barcelona Open title with a 7-6, 6-2 victory over South Korean qualifier Chung Hyeon in the quarterfinals of the tournament on Friday.
Chung started strongly, breaking Nadal and then consolidating to lead 3-1. Nadal responded quite well though, and broke the Korean to take the tie-break 7-1.
The Spaniard managed to keep up his run of not having lost a set this week. That appeared to spur Nadal, who would drop just two games in the second.
Nadal finally wrapped up a 7-6, 6-2 win to set up a semifinal encounter with Horacio Zeballos of Argentina.