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, but will have to wait to find out his opponent at the Foro Italico.
The Austrian will face either world number two Novak Djokovic or Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro, whose quarter-final was suspended till Saturday after rain halted play with the Serb leading del Potro 6-1 1-2.
Beaten twice by Nadal in the space of a month, in the Barcelona and Madrid Open finals, Thiem took his revenge by handing the 30-year-old Spaniard a first clay court defeat of the season in Rome.
The upset, after one hour and 51 minutes, ended Nadal's 17-match unbeaten run on clay.
The aggressive eighth seed had Nadal rattled from the start and broke the Spaniard in the first and fifth games to go 5-1 up before Nadal fought back to 5-4.
Thiem then broke for a 4-3 lead in the second set with successive backhand and forehand winners and held on to leave Nadal serving in vain to stay in the match. The Austrian clinched victory on his first matchpoint as Nadal hit wide.
The Spaniard will now focus on the French Open, where he will be aiming for a 10th title at Roland Garros.
Despite the loss to Thiem, Nadal's current form makes him the favourite heading into the second Grand Slam of the year.
“I’m very happy with how I played during these four weeks and now remains Roland Garros,” said Nadal.
In the women's singles, Garbine Muguruza flashed some impressive form ahead of her French Open title defence with a 6-2 3-6 6-2 win over Venus Williams on Friday to reach the semi-finals of the Italian Open in Rome.
The Spanish third seed, who reached the Rome semi-finals last year before going on to win her sole career grand slam, will next face eighth seeded Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, who earlier upset Czech second seed Karolina Pliskova 6-2 7-6(9).
Muguruza used a solid forehand to power through the first set during which she hit just eight unforced errors but gave up 20 in the second as Williams forced a decider.
The Spaniard fell behind in the third set before responding immediately with a break. She clinched the match when seven-times grand slam champion Williams sent a forehand wide.
With the win, world number seven Muguruza will return to the top five in the rankings and be guaranteed a top-four seeding at Roland Garros for the year's second grand slam.
