Eighth seed Rafael Nadal beat Milos Raonic 6-3 7-6 (7-3) to advance to the quarter finals of the Shanghai Rolex Master. With this win Nadal took a re-match against Raonic who beat the Mallorcan legend in the quarter finals at Indian Wells last March.
Raonic was broken on his first service game as he hit his forehand wide to go down 0-2 after leading 40-15. Nadal won the third game after recovering from 0-30 with his serve and his forehand. He served out the first set with 6-3 as Raonic hit his backhand return into the net on the set point.
Both players saved break points at the start of the second set (Nadal had two chances, while Raonic earned his first break point chance of the match). The second set went on serve until the tie-break after one hour and a half. Nadal got the early mini-break for 1-0 and pulled away to take a 5-2 lead before earning four match points with a forehand passing shot. He sealed the win at the second opportunity with a second mini-break when Raonic hit his forehand into the net. In the quarter finals Nadal will face the winner of the match between Marin Cilic and Stan Wawrinka. Nadal has extended his winning streak to 6-1 in his head-to-head matches against Raonic
Nadal has continued his good period of form on indoor hard court. One week after reaching the first hard court final of the year in Beijing, the 14-time Grand Slam champion has scored his first win against a top-10 since beating Tomas Berdych in Madrid
