Rafael Nadal has admitted that David Ferrer was a broken man during the third set of Friday's quarter-final encounter at the Madrid Open.

Ferrer failed to capitalise on two match points in the second set, before eventually being comprehensively beaten 4-6 7-6 6-0.

Nadal, who has now won 18 of his 22 meetings against Ferrer, believes that his opponent found it difficult to recover mentally from losing the second set.

"After missing his chance, David fell apart a little," explained Nadal. "He lowered his intensity in the third set and I didn't have to do as much."

If Nadal overcomes Pablo Andujar in the next round then he will have reached seven consecutive tournament finals this year.