Nadal in Bercy the last four as Schwartzman qualifies for the Tour Finals

Rafael Nadal rallied to beat Pablo Carreño Busta and reach the semifinals of the Paris Masters on Friday, giving Argentine Diego Schwartzman last place in the ATP Tour Finals in the process.

The 20-time Grand Slam champion clinched a 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 victory, ending his compatriot’s hopes of qualifying for the season-ending tournament in London.

Nadal will play Alexander Zverev for a place in Sunday’s final as he seeks to win the trophy for the first time, after the German beat Stan Wawrinka 6-3, 7-6 (7/1).

“What really matters to me is that I need to come back better,” Nadal said.

“My serve is working well, I think, so the rest of the game more or less I’m playing better and better.

“I need to come back better if I want to have opportunities to move on.”

Schwartzman had his fate out of his own hands on Friday with a quarter-final thrashing of Daniil Medvedev, who will face Milos Raonic in the other semi-final.

Top seed Nadal, playing his first event since winning a 13th French Open title in Paris at Roland Garros last month, would equal Novak Djokovic’s record of 36 successful Masters titles this week.

The 34-year-old’s best effort at Bercy Arena was a final loss in 2007 to David Nalbandian.

The world number two was in trouble when he faced three break points in the opening game of the second set, but saved them all before forcing a decider in game 12 with a brilliant forehand winner.

He capped a dominant display in the third set with five consecutive games.

Fourth seed Zverev reached the semi-finals for the first time by extending his winning streak to 11 games with a close success over Wawrinka.

The 23-year-old German broke Wawrinka when the Swiss served for the second set before beating his opponent in the tie-break.

“Definitely happy to be in the semi-finals and it will be interesting tomorrow (Saturday)… A lot of people are looking forward to that and so am I,” said Zverev, who has a 5-1 losing record against Nadal.

Schwartzman hammered by Medvedev

Russia’s third seed Medvedev pulled off a 6-3, 6-1 win over Schwartzman in just 64 minutes to set up a quarterfinal clash with Milos Raonic, who saved two match points to beat fit Frenchman Ugo Humbert 6 -3. 3-6, 7-6 (9/7).

Schwartzman had to wait for Nadal to win before he could celebrate his first appearance in the ATP Finals.

World number five Medvedev, whose seven ATP titles have all come on hard courts, broke Schwartzman’s serve in the third game and did not yield.

Schwartzman never seemed to mount a comeback, winning just one of 28 points on Medvedev’s first serve.

“Milos (Raonic) is perhaps one of the greatest servers in the history of the sport,” Medvedev said.

“So it’s not going to be that easy, but for sure when you play indoor hard courts you need to serve well.”

The Tour Finals, which will be played in London for the last time before moving to Turin, will begin on November 15.

Canada’s Raonic scored 25 aces in a typically strong serve display, but had to fight from the brink of defeat in a decisive set tiebreaker against Humbert.

Humbert, 22, was on an eight-game winning streak after winning his last tournament in Antwerp.

But Raonic saved a match point on his opponent’s serve after a remarkable 30-shot play, before some great serves saw him over the finish line.

The former Wimbledon runner-up, who lost the 2014 Paris Masters final to Novak Djokovic, has been beaten in his two previous encounters with Medvedev.

“It’s going to be tough, he’s been playing especially well this week,” Raonic said. “I just have to be sharp and watch my service.”