Nadal reaches Paris semis after rallying to beat Carreno Busta

PARIS (AP) — Rafael Nadal trailed by a set and 0-40 before rallying to beat Spanish countryman Pablo Carreno Busta 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 and reach the Paris Masters semifinals on Friday.

Nadal has never won the tournament in Paris and lost his only final 13 years ago. The top-seeded Spaniard next plays Alexander Zverev, who beat three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka 6-3, 7-6 (1) for a fourth straight win against the Swiss veteran.

Zverev has lost five of six matches against Nadal, although the fourth-seeded German’s one success was in straight sets at last year’s ATP Finals.

Nadal’s victory also ensured Diego Schwartzman the last slot at those finals, and at his rival Carreno Busta’s expense. Schwartzman advanced to the finals in London from Nov. 15-22, despite earlier losing to Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 6-1 in their quarterfinal.

Carreno Busta is a confidence-crushing 0-7 overall against Nadal, but there might be a good reason why he’s never beaten him.

He looked in control against a jaded-looking Nadal after conceding only five points on his serve in the first set.

“The problem was he was winning his serves too comfortably, I was not able to return enough well,” Nadal said. “I need to return better if I want to have chances to keep going.”

But Carreno Busta let Nadal off the hook by playing loose shots after having him 0-40 on his serve at the start of the second set.

The sloppy reprieve galvanized the 20-time Grand Slam champion into stepping up his game.

Nadal secured his first break of the match in the 12th game to avoid a hazardous tiebreaker, and took command after breaking his opponent to love for a 3-1 lead in the decider.