World number two Rafa Nadal sailed into the quarter-finals of the China Open, his first tournament in 13 weeks, with a 6-3 6-4 win over German qualifier Peter Gojo-wczyk yesterday.
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.
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.
The Czech only managed to make 32 per cent of his first serves and now meets big server John Isner in the quarter-finals.
Elsewhere on Beijing’s blue hard courts, Grigor Dimitrov beat Pablo Andujar 6-4 6-4 to set up a quarter-final clash 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 quarter-finals without hitting a ball after Venus Williams withdrew with a viral illness.
Kuznetsova dropped the first set but eventually prevailed 2-6 6-4 6-3 in the two-hour-and-eight minute battle that complicates her German opponent’s hopes of qualifying for the season-ending WTA Finals in Singapore.
Second seed Simona Halep battled past Andrea Petkovic 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 5-7 7-6 and reach the last eight where she will meet Ana Ivanovic.
Top seed Serena Williams, playing with a strapped left knee, claimed the last quarter-final spot after staving off Lucie Safarova’s challenge with a 6-1 1-6 6-2 win.