Juan Martin del Potro wins match of the day by stopping third seed Alexander Zverev in his tracks
Thursday 12 October 2017 16:31, UK
Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer remained on a collision course as they continued to scythe their way through the Shanghai Masters on Thursday.
Nadal underlined his status as the man to beat in China as he powered into the quarter-finals at the expense of Fognini to make it 14 wins in a row.
The 31-year-old Spaniard was comfortable in seeing off the 28th-ranked Italian 6-3 6-1 and will play sixth seed Grigor Dimitrov in the last eight after the Bulgarian, who saved match points on Wednesday against Ryan Harrison, defeated American Sam Querrey 6-3 7-6 (7-3).
Top seed Nadal is chasing a seventh title this season, but a career-first Shanghai Masters, as he looks to close in on finishing the year as world No 1 for the first time since 2013.
Federer avoided a potential banana skin in outclassing the Ukrainian qualifier Alexandr Dolgopolov in a swift 61 minutes on court.
The 36-year-old Swiss legend was closer to his fluent best as he swatted away Dolgopolov 6-4 6-2, and will now play Gilles Simon after the Frenchmen edged out his fellow countryman Richard Gasquet 7-5 6-7 (5-7) 6-3.
A gutsy Juan Martin del Potro recovered from a set down to win 3-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 against third seed Alexander Zverev.
The talented 20-year-old Zverev was going after his sixth title of a breakthrough season and was comfortable in the first set against the giant Argentine, the US Open semi-finalist this year.
But Del Potro, who will return to the top 20 next week for the first time since the left wrist problems that nearly ended his career, grabbed the crucial mini-break in the second set tiebreak as a flash of anger from Zverev yielded the crucial service break to go 3-2 down in the decider.
Del Potro told the official ATP World Tour website: "If my level continues improving, I will get closer to the top guys. But it's not easy. I have made a big effort after all my injuries to play tennis, but I think I'm doing well."
Wimbledon runner-up Marin Cilic moved closer to qualifying for the ATP World Tour Finals as he eased into the quarter-finals with a 7-6 (7-11) 6-4 defeat of American Steve Johnson.
Sky Sports Tennis will have all the action from the Shanghai Masters before we head to the Erste Bank Open and Swiss Indoors Basel and then the Paris Masters.
The Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan and season-ending extravaganza World Tour Finals at London's O2 in November end another memorable year which will be covered via our website www.skysports.com/tennis with live blogs and updates as the season reaches its climax.
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