Dominic Thiem snapped Rafael Nadal‘s 21-match, 50-set winning streak on clay with a 7-5, 6-3 victory in the Madrid Open quarter-finals on Friday — a result that ended the Spaniard’s title defence at the tournament, as well as his world No. 1 reign.

Nadal needed to defend his Madrid title in order to stay at the top of the rankings and his loss on Friday means Roger Federer — who is sitting out the clay season — will return to the summit on Monday.

An out-of-sorts Nadal had won his last 50 consecutive sets on clay, with his last defeat – and set dropped – on the surface coming against Thiem in Rome last year. It was Thiem who once again disrupted Nadal’s dominance on the red dirt, as the Austrian moves into the semi-finals, where he faces Kevin Anderson.

Thiem was dialed in from the start, and blasted a forehand down-the-line to get his hands on a break point in the first game of the match. Nadal saved it, and another one, to hold for 1-0.

Thiem was fierce on the forehand side, showcasing arguably his best tennis of the season thus far. The Austrian broke for 4-3, courtesy of two forehand errors from Nadal.

Serving for the set, Thiem squandered a set point and allowed Nadal back in it, as the Mallorcan broke for 5-all.

A wide backhand from Nadal gave Thiem two break points in the next game and a netted forehand from the Mallorcan gave his opponent a second opportunity to serve for the set.

Nadal faced two break points in the third game of the second set, as double faults and slow serving once again plagued him. The defending champion saved both but ultimately got broken as Thiem inched ahead 2-1.

A roaring leap from Nadal set the stadium into frenzy as the home favourite got two break points on the Thiem serve in game four. But Thiem serve-and-volleyed to save the first and safely held for 3-1.

But Nadal was folding just yet and broke back to level for 3-all. Thiem pulled ahead once again, breaking then holding at love for 5-3.

The No. 5 seed made it three games in a row, breaking Nadal again to secure victory in less than two hours. Nadal committed 29 unforced errors against just 12 winners.

Thiem is 0-6 head-to-head against Anderson, who finally reached a Masters 1000 semi-final on his 11th attempt. Anderson overcame Dusan Lajovic — who had defeated Juan Martin del Potro in the previous round — 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-3 to make the last-eight.

“I must be honest, I think I did a good job then because I didn’t really think of it too much,” the South African said of his 0-10 record in Masters 1000 quarter-finals heading into Friday’s match.

“I had lots of reason to think about it. Indian Wells and Miami, not that long ago. Two 7-6s in the third. To fall a bit short, match points against Carreno Busta in Miami.

“Of course, I knew the opportunity existed today. I thought first step was putting myself in that position. I was able to do that. Going out there today, I just really focused on what I needed to do. Thinking too much about previous results is not going to do me too much good, outside of the fact that, sure, there was motivation to get through. I really wanted to break through and be in the semi-finals. It was a goal that I set myself.

“By no means that means that I’m done. It definitely feels good. It was a mini goal accomplished for me today.”