Nadal storms into quarters

Dimitrov sets up Djokovic clash

World number two Rafa Nadal sailed into the quarterfinals of the China Open, his first tournament in 13 weeks, with a 6-3, 6-4 win over German qualifier Peter Gojowczyk on Thursday.

The Spaniard, returning from a wrist injury, won 85 per cent of his first service points against the German and took an hour and 45 minutes to seal victory and set up a last eight clash with Martin Klizan at the ATP 500 event.

Slovak Klizan was leading 6-2, 3-0 when seventh seed Ernests Gulbis retired due to a right shoulder injury.

Third seed Tomas Berdych moved up a place to seventh in the race to the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London after his 6-3, 6-4 victory against wild card Viktor Troicki despite a poor serving display.

Elsewhere, Bulgarian Gri­gor Dimitrov beat Spaniard Pablo Andujar 6-4, 6-4 to set up a quarterfinal meeting with world number one Novak Djokovic, while sixth seed Andy Murray beat Pablo Cuevas 6-2, 6-2.

In the women section, Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova upset seventh seed Angel­ique Kerber in three sets, while Petra Kvitova also reached the last-eight without hitting a ball after American Venus Williams withdrew with a viral illness.

Twice champion Kuzn­et­sova dropped the first set but eventually prevailed 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the two-hour-and-eight minute battle.

Second seed Simona Halep battled past Andrea Petkovic of Germany with tie-breaks separating the pair in two of the three low quality sets.

The Romanian fought for more than two and half hours to tame Petkovic 7-6(4), 5-7, 7-6(1) and reach the last eight where she will meet Ana Ivanovic, who downed Sabine Lisicki 6-3, 7-5.

Italian Roberta Vinci prevailed in a three-setter, defeating 12th seed Ekaterina Makarova 6-1, 0-6, 7-5.  

Nishikori enter semis In Tokyo, Kei Nishikori stren­gthened his bid to become the first Asian to qualify for an ATP year-end final as the fourth seed defeated American Donald Young 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) on Thursday at the Japan Open.

He needed only one break to get the better of Young, a one-time prodigy who has never lived up to expectations.

The Japanese took his victory in just under 90 minutes, despite a brief hiatus in the first set for the roof of the Ariake Colosseum to be closed when it started to rain.

Canadian third seed Milos Raonic set up a quarterfinal date with Uzbek Denis Istomin.

Raonic beat Austrian veteran Jurgen Melzer 6-4, 6-3 while Istomin defeated Poland's Michel Przysiezny 6-4, 7-6 (7/5).

Paes-Bopanna ousted

Leander Paes and Rohan Bo­p­anna crashed out of the Ja­pan Open following a stra­ight set defeat against Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo.

The unseeded Indian combine lost 3-6, 2-6 to the second seeded Croat-Brazilian combo in the quarterfinal, which was over in just 51 minutes.

Paes and Bopanna play with different partners on the ATP tour and hence playing against a formidable team, which has done extremely well this season, was a tall order.

The Indian pair had just one chance to break their opponents and lost their serve thrice in the contest.