Fourth seed Rafael Nadal eyes first semi-final berth in three years at the French Open when he takes on compatriot Pablo Carreno Busta in the Men's singles quarter-final at the Roland Garros Stadium on Tuesday.
The nine-time champion is looking on course to a historic 10th Roland Garros title and is heading into the last-eight tie after demolishing Roberto Bautista Agut 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 in straight sets in his R16 match on Sunday.
On the other hand, Carreno Busta stunned fifth seed Milos Raonic in a hard-fought five-setter 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-7(6), 6-4, 8-6 that extended to four hours and 17 minutes.
Nadal headed into Roland Garros after dominating the dirt with a 17-1 record and titles at Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Madrid. The Spaniard has conceded only 20 games so far in the ongoing tournament and nearly delivered a triple bagel against his third-round opponent Nikoloz Basilashvili last week.
Notably, Nadal withdrew from last year's French Open after the third round with a wrist injury and did not progress past the quarter-final in 2015, a year after he had won his ninth title in Paris. Having made a strong comeback this season, the 31-year-old is expected to face defending champion Novak Djokovic in the last-four stage.
Standing in his way is Carreno Busta, who has also been in fine leading up to Paris with a title at Estoril. The 25-year-old will be pumped up for the big match after having stunned Raonic, couple of days after he dumped out 11th seed Grigor Dimitrov with a straight-set win.
Carreno Busta has not managed to beat Nadal even once in their three meetings in the past. With the latter's record against fellow Spaniards reading a perfect 13-0, the former faces an uphill task to prevent it from becoming 14-0 later today.
