to go to the final, dont wait. "Normally tickets on the secondary market come down in price, especially the last

BARCELONA, Spain -- Top-ranked Rafael Nadals clay-court struggles worsened Friday as his 41-match winning streak at the Barcelona Open ended with a three-set loss to Nicolas Almagro in the quarterfinals. Nadal was looking for his ninth title in Barcelona but lost 2-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4, a week after going out in the quarterfinals of the Monte Carlo Masters to David Ferrer. Nadal, widely considered the greatest clay-court player of all time, hadnt lost in Barcelona since his debut as a 15-year-old in 2003, although he missed the tournament in 2010. He had not dropped a set here since the 2008 final. The 20th-ranked Almagro converted his second match point, smashing a forehand down the line for his first career victory over his fellow Spaniard on the 11th try. "I had a lot of opportunities in the second set," Nadal said. "I didnt take advantage of break points, so credit goes to him." After failing to convert any of his five break points in the second set, Nadal missed a return in the tiebreaker to give Almagro a 6-5 lead. Almagro followed up with a crosscourt forehand winner to level the match and end Nadals streak of 44 straight sets at the tournament. Both players were steady on serve until an exchange of breaks made it 4-4 in the third, and Nadal then sent a shot long to be broken again and give Almagro a chance to serve for the match. Nadal set up two straight chances to break back, but hit a forehand long and then sent a smash into the net with Almagro out of position. Nadal then saved the first match point when Almagros backhand flew wide. But Almagro used a serve-and-volley to save a third break point of the game before Nadals long return set up the second match point. Nadal hadnt been eliminated this early in back-to-back clay-court tournaments since 2004, when as an 18-year-old he also failed to get past the quarterfinals in Stuttgart and Bastad. "This is an important win for my career," said Almagro, who celebrated wildly. Almagro will face Santiago Giraldo in Saturdays semifinals after Philipp Kohlschreiber retired with an injury while trailing 6-4, 4-3. Earlier, Kei Nishikori of Japan and Ernests Gulbis of Latvia overpowered opponents to set up a semifinal meeting. The fourth-seeded Nishikori continued his good run since returning from a groin injury with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Marin Cilic of Croatia, while the ninth-seeded Gulbis dismissed Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia 6-1, 6-4. Gulbis saved all five break points against Gabashvili, who had knocked out the fifth-ranked Ferrer. Discount Ray Ban Sale .S. - Nova Scotias Mary Fay guaranteed at least one more match and a shot at the Canadian junior curling championships final on home ice. Ray Ban Sale Online . Although Spain could still advance out of the group stage, the game may have signalled the end of the run by a generation of Spanish stars whose quick passing, "tiki-taka" style delighted the world and helped them win the last three major tournaments. http://www.raybanwholesale.com/ . On Wednesday night, they showed that stellar defence and a little small ball can get the job done too. With pinch-runner Kevin Pillar aboard after Dioner Navarro opened the bottom of the ninth with a single, Anthony Gose dropped down an excellent bunt along the first-base line. Ray Ban Outlet Stores . "That was a great lift for the staff," Padres manager Bud Black said. Yonder Alonso and Yasmani Grandal homered, and Chase Headley drove in three runs, as the Padres beat the Chicago Cubs 11-1 on Friday night. Cheap Ray Ban Free China .ca presents its latest weekly power rankings for the 2013-14 Barclays Premier League season.LOS ANGELES -- Big Apple equals big prices when it comes to buying a Stanley Cup final ticket on the secondary market. SeatGeek, an aggregator for the secondary ticket market, reports a "very high" demand for tickets in both Los Angeles and New York. "But theres a huge difference between the two cities," SeatGeek spokesman Connor Gregoire said Tuesday from New York. "Its much more a sellers market in New York." The average ticket price for Games 1 and 2 in Los Angeles is about US$800, with the cheapest going for $400, according to Gregoire. In New York, the average price for Games 3 and 4 is $1,800, with the cheapest at $1,000. "Its actually cheaper, say youre a Rangers fan in New York, for you to book a last-minute round-trip flight to L.A., stay in a hotel, buy two tickets to Game 1 or 2," said Gregoire. "Youd actually save money doing that versus buying two tickets in New York." Cameron Papp, a spokesman for ticket reseller StubHub, quoted an average price for Game 1 in Los Angeles at around $760 with Game 3 in New York at about $1,500. "New York actually hasnt seen a title in a while," he said from San Francisco. "A lot of fans are excited about it and thats whats driving up demand for this Stanley Cup final." Seeing the Rangers is a tough ticket during the regular season. Add pent-up demand due to a 20-year absence from the Cup final and New Yorkers desire to see a winner and you have a recipe for a sticker shock. Plus there are sports fans with some deep pockets there. They need them. Face value for most Rangers Cup final tickets start at $450 with an average of $750, according to Gregoire. Ice-level seats at Madison Square Garden can exceed $1,000. Rangers forward Derek Stepan says the good news for him is that most people understand that he cant help them with tickets. "Theres not too many people that are reaching out because they know that in this situation, that its going to be family only," he said. "It is crazy though," he said of the demand for tickets. Would he pay $1,800 for a ticket? "Me? I love the game," he said. "Id pay for it." SeatGeeek, established in September 2009, has only seen one event with more ticket sizzle -- the Super Bowl earlier this year in the New York/New Jersey area.dddddddddddd The average price for that Super Bowl on the secondary ticket market was $2,500. "So youre getting pretty close to that stratosphere," Gregoire said, referring to the Cup final. He believes this Cup final could equal that Super Bowl mark if the Rangers have a shot at closing out the series in Game 4 or 6. "Youre going to see a huge spike in prices," he said. And Game 6 tickets are already averaging $2,300. "Its pretty much there, at Super Bowl levels already." As of Tuesday afternoon, StubHub had 2,750 seats on offer for both Game 1 in Los Angeles and Game 4 in New York, with the number going down. Gregoire said usually 20 to 25 per cent of the arena is available on secondary outlets. The SeatGeek spokesman says if you have the cash and the desire to go to the final, dont wait. "Normally tickets on the secondary market come down in price, especially the last day of the game when sellers are happy to take whatever they can get for their tickets. But in the Stanley Cup finals or championship series in any sport really, theres so much demand ... fans are sort of out of luck if theyre hoping to score a last-minute bargain-basement deal." The Rangers are always a good draw, says Papp. This year, they were third behind the Blackhawks and Bruins on the StubHub sales table. "Its a pretty hot ticket, especially when the Knicks arent doing so well," he added. The Kings have also proved to be popular. Papp says two years ago Game 4 in Los Angeles Staples Center was StubHubs highest-selling Stanley Cup game of all-time. "Were going to see some demand from Los Angeles too. I just think its a little early." In other words, Kings fans are coming off their Game 7 win in Chicago while Rangers fans have had time to mull over buying tickets since eliminated the Canadiens late last week. As for StubHub, its hoping for a long series. "We always like more games," Papp said with a laugh. "Hopefully its going to be a great series." ' ' '