Rafael Nadal hammers Stan Wawrinka to reach Madrid Open semis

World number two Rafael Nadal booked his place in the semi-final of the Madrid Open after thrashing Swiss tennis maestro Stan Wawrinka in straight sets in their last-eight clash on Saturday. 

The 32-year-old Spanish tennis maestro hardly broke a sweat as he eased past Wawrinka 6-1, 6-2 in a one-sided quarter-final clash of the men's singles event that lasted one hour and eight minutes at the Manolo Santana stadium. 

Reflecting on his match, Nadal said that he is extremely happy with the way he performed against Wawrinka throughout the clash.

"It was a very positive match. I'm very happy with the way that I played and in general terms, it was a great performance. I'm happy, it was an important moment for me and I'm really happy to be through this way,"the Association for Tennis Professionals (ATP) quoted Nadal as saying. 

With the win, second-seed Nadal has stormed into his 70th ATP Masters 1000 semi-final and has improved his head-to-head rivalry against Wawrinka by 18-3.

He will now look to continue his quest for the sixth title at Madrid Open when he faces reigning ATP Finals champion Stefanos Tsitsipas in the last-four clash of the tournament. 

Commenting on his upcoming clash, Nadal said that the match against Tsitsipas would surely going to be a tough one as the Greek tennis star is heading into the match with plenty of confidence. 

"He's playing well. He won last week in Estoril and he's already won a lot of good matches this week. He comes to that semi-final with plenty of confidence. It's going to be a tough one, I hope to be ready for it. I'll need to play my best. Today was a good example. I need to continue tomorrow, that's the goal," the Spaniard concluded.