World male tennis champion, Rafael Nadal suffered his first clay-court defeat in almost a year when the Spanish player loss by 7-5, 6-3 to Austria’s Dominic Thiem in the Madrid Masters quarter-finals on Friday, May 11.
Nadal, having won his 11th titles at Monte Carlo and at Barcelona, also saw his record 50-set winning streak on clay ended by the fifth-seeded Thiem.
Thiem had been the last player to defeat Nadal on clay at the Italian Open in Rome almost 12 months ago.
The shock result also means that Roger Federer will reclaim the world number one ranking on Monday
