Rafa Nadal’s return to action came to a shuddering halt yesterday when the Spaniard was beaten by Slovakia’s Martin Klizan in the quarter-finals at the China Open.
After world number one Novak Djokovic had continued his march through the draw to set up a mouth watering semi-final against Andy Murray, Nadal ran out of steam against Klizan who won 6-7(7) 6-4 6-3 for the biggest scalp of his career.
Women’s top seed Serena Williams was forced to pull out through injury while Maria Sharapova destroyed Svetlana Kuz-netsova 6-0 6-4 in an all-Russian women’s quarter-final.
American world no.1 Williams, who had reached the last eight with a three-set win over Czech Lucie Safarova on Thursday, cited a problem in her left knee for handing a walkover to Australian Sam Stosur.
It was the second tournament in a row the 33-year-old had been forced to withdraw after she quit her opening match at the Wuhan Open last week because of illness.
Djokovic dismantled a flat Grigor Dimitrov 6-2 6-4 in a one-sided quarter-final while Murray maintained his quest to qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals when he stormed past US Open champion Marin Cilic 6-1 6-4.
Nadal seemed to be on course for the semis and a match-up with Czech Tomas Berdych when he edged the first set on a tiebreak.
At the scene of his 2008 Olympic gold medal Nadal was then a break ahead in the second set when the match began to turn in favour of 56th ranked qualifier Klizan.
Klizan broke the Nadal serve twice to level the match but Nadal again forged ahead in the decider, leading 3-2 with a break before the match slipped out of his control.
The 28-year-old Nadal lost his serve to love and with Klizan playing a fearless brand of attacking tennis the Mallorcan suddenly found himself 5-3 down.
Klizan showed no nerves and finished the two hour 37 minute contest with a spectacular smash.
Stosur will take on Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in the semis after the Czech beat Italian Roberta Vinci 7-6 (7) 6-4.
WTA Finals
Eugenie Bouchard, Agnieszka Radwanska, Caroline Wozniacki and Ivanovic have completed the lineup for the WTA Finals in Singapore after their closest challengers were ousted early at the China Open.
Germany’s Angelique Kerber and Ekaterina Makarova of Russia lost in the third round in Beijing to send the quartet through to the Oct. 20-26 tournament alongside Williams, Simona Halep, Sharapova and Kvitova.