World number one Rafael Nadal pumped his fist in celebration as he reached the quarter finals of the Shanghai Open with a 6-1 7-6 victory over Argentina’s Carlos Berlocq on Thursday.
Nadal, who regained his place at the top of the rankings at the expense of Novak Djokovic on Monday, strolled through the first set but met fiercer resistance in the second.
Berlocq took it to a tiebreak and was ahead before Nadal resumed command, drawing level at 5-5 with a brilliant lob from the baseline and then winning the next two points to wrap up the match in just under 1 hour 50 minutes.
Top seed and defending champion Djokovic also reached the quarter-finals thanks to a 6-3 6-3 defeat of Fabio Fognini of Italy.
Djokovic will next face Gael Monfils after the unseeded Frenchman defeated fifth seed Roger Federer earlier in the day.
After the win, Djokovic said it was a good win for him with doing everything at the right time.
Unfortunately for Fifth seed Federer, who is battling to reach the end-of-season ATP World Tour Finals for the 12th consecutive year, he lost 6-4 6-7(5) 6-3 to Monfils.
Federer who was hopeful of advancement said he could have done many things better and worse today but would move on.