Rafael Nadal ended a run of three straight losses to Alexander Zverev with a convincing 6-3, 6-4 win to reach the Italian Open semifinals.
Rafael Nadal won his first French Open in 2005 and established a run that would see him win the title 13 times.
The Serbian breezed past the Spaniard to reach his 15th quarterfinal at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia.
Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have been dominating tennis for a while now, making it harder for other players to win the Grand Slams.
The 19-year-old Italian tennis player needed only 90 minutes to beat the Frenchman in straight sets.
According to Serbian World No.1 Novak Djokovic, a shift in the favour ATP rankings seems "inevitable".
The 33-year-old is now plotting his comeback to the fore during the second Grand Slam of the year and will fly out to Rome on Saturday.
Alexander Zverev is only the fourth player to have won three or more consecutive games against Rafael Nadal in Tennis.
The 27-year-old is eager to get back to his best when he returns to action in Madrid Open.
Djokovic, who has only played four tournaments this year, suffered a surprise defeat to Aslan Karatsev in semifinals of the Serbia Open last week