Italian Open 2018: Friday's Rome Masters Tennis Scores, Results, Latest Schedule

Rafael Nadal reached the semi-final of the Italian Open on Friday after he came from behind to dispatch local favourite Fabio Fognini in three sets.

Fourth seed Marin Cilic made light work of Pablo Carreno Busta soon after, winning 6-3, 6-3.

Elina Svitolina also booked her place in the final four, having seen off Angelique Kerber in straight sets.

Later in the day, Novak Djokovic and Kei Nishikori served up a thriller, with the Serb winning in three sets.

Here are all the scores from Friday's action:

Men's Results

(1) Rafael Nadal bt. Fabio Fognini: 4-6, 6-1, 6-2

(4) Marin Cilic bt. (10) Pablo Carreno Busta: 6-3, 6-3

(11) Novak Djokovic bt. Kei Nishikori: 2-6, 6-1, 6-3

(9) David Goffin vs. (2) Alexander Zverev

Women's Results

(4) Elina Svitolina bt. (11) Angelique Kerber:  6-4, 6-4

Maria Sharapova bt. (5) Jelena Ostapenko: 6-7 (8), 6-4, 7-5

Anett Kontaveit bt. (2) Caroline Wozniacki: 6-3, 6-1

(1) Simona Halep vs. (7) Caroline Garcia

The semi-finals will be played on Saturday, May 19, followed by the finals on Sunday, May 20. For the full schedule, visit the Italian Open's official website.

Fognini showed some early resistance to Nadal, battling to his first hold from 15-30 down in his opening service game, but it looked as though that had quickly dissipated when he was broken shortly after from 40-15 up, per Tennis TV:

With Nadal 4-1 up, it seemed as though the Spaniard would ease through the first set comfortably, but the Italian rattled off five games in a row—including two breaks—to take it.

The world No. 1 stopped the rot with a hold to open the second, and he took full advantage as Fognini failed to maintain his momentum to setup a decider.

Nadal once again grabbed an early break in the third and was looking much stronger, per Record's Jose Morgado:

A pair of unforced errors from Fognini saw him give away another break of serve, and he struggled to challenge Nadal's, winning just two points on the Spaniard's serve in the final set.

Nadal will play Djokovic in the next round after the Serb came through a tough challlenge from Nihiskori. As shared by Morgado, that didn't seem likely after just one set:

Nishikori broke serve in the first game, setting the tone for a dominant showing from the baseline in the opener. His opponent made the necessary adjustments in the second set, however, playing with more aggression on his serve and putting everything behind his returns:

He had the momentum early in the third as well, but his Japanese opponent fired back, resulting in a great back-and-forth. It was Djokovic who eventually found the break of serve, but he had to dig very deep to do so.

Meanwhile, Cilic's win over Carreno Busta was as routine as they come. The Croatian gave away just seven points on his own serve—four of which were double-faults—and ruthlessly converted all three of his break point opportunities at the first time of asking.

He will be in unfamiliar territory on Saturday, having never before reached the semi-finals of an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament on clay.

Kerber had not won any of her last five matches against Svitolina, or her last seven sets. That run looked to have changed when she went a break up in the first, but she failed to close out the set as Svitolina won four games in a row.

The pair exchanged five breaks of serve in the second, but five double-faults—having also made three in the first set—proved costly for the German.