French Open winner Rafael Nadal clinched his 32nd consecutive claycourt win in Stuttgart, Germany, to better the 31-win sequence held by a quartet of tennis players, including Bjorn Borg.
With the win, the 19-year-old Spaniard put himself within sight of Thomas Muster's record of 40 consecutive claycourt victories set in
1995, with a 6-2, 6-1 success over Czech Thomas Zib in the quarter-finals of the Stuttgart ATP event.
Bjorg held the previous second best mark of 31 with Muster again, Guillermo Coria and Mats Wilander.
Nadal, the top seed, has won seven titles in 2005 - all on clay and he moved into his ninth semifinal of the year.
He is second only to world No 1 Roger Federer in titles won this year, and has won his past five claycourt tournaments, including Bastad two weeks ago.
Nadal will face unseeded Jarkko Nieminen of Finland for a spot in the finals in Stuttgart.
Nieminen defeated Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-2, 6-3 to reach his second semifinal of the year.
In the other half of the draw, Russian second seed Nikolay Davydenko and third seed Gaston Gaudio of Argentina advanced to a semifinal meeting.
Davydenko stopped No 11 seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-2, and Gaudio saw off his countryman Mariano Zabaleta 6-4, 1-6, 6-2.
- HERALD ON SUNDAY
