Rafa beats the drum for Hairnando ...

Well ... Rafa came out the 6-4, 7-5 winner, but to be frank, in spite of having his "match face" on, he was largely gifted the first set.

Then horror of horrors, he went down two breaks to be 4-0 down in the second. However, through a mixture of the odd great shot, but largely choking and mistakes from Hairnando, Rafa prevailed and came out the 7-5 winner. Hairnando choked in the face of possibly pushing lovely Rafa.

Below is a short report from Rafa's website on tonight's match ...

"Less than 50 of play was enough for Rafa to power his way into the semifinals of the Madrid Masters Series tournament after beating his compatriot Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 7-5 in tonight’s quarterfinal clash.

Verdasco was up 4-0 in the second set, but quickly lost his advantage to the World No.1, who now leads him 9-0 in their head-to-head encounters. In the semis, Rafa will play against Novak Djokovoc."

Bring on the Smurf ...