In Doha, he overcame three-time Slam champion Stan Wawrinka and backed it up with an impressive run to the final a week later in Dubai with wins over Dominic Thiem, Kei Nishikori and Denis Shapovalov.
He also knocked Grigor Dimitrov out of the Madrid Masters 1000, and faces Nishikori next in the Washington quarter-finals.
The 24-year-old also impressed Nadal himself with his gutsy performance over the former world number one.
“I played against a player that played well. For the moment, I think I played better than yesterday, but in the third when I had opportunities, the truth is his serve was huge and I played this last game really badly,” he said.
