Rafael Nadal battled past Australian Jordan Thompson in straight sets to reach the Paris Masters quarter-finals on Thursday, as Diego Schwa...
Rafael Nadal battled past Australian Jordan Thompson in straight sets to reach the Paris Masters quarter-finals on Thursday, as Diego Schwartzman moved within one win of securing an ATP Tour Finals debut.
Top seed Nadal got the better of Thompson 6-1, 7-6 (7/3) to set up a last-eight clash with fellow Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta, who must win the title this week to have a chance of snatching the last Tour Finals spot from Schwartzman.
World number 61 Thompson missed a set point to force a decider in his first meeting with the 20-time Grand Slam champion.
“He started to serve well. I missed a couple of returns I shouldn’t have,” said Nadal. “It was close. I suffered until the end but I found a way to win the tie-break.”
Nadal, who claimed his 1,000th career victory by beating Feliciano Lopez on Wednesday, is bidding for a first Paris indoors triumph which would draw him level with Novak Djokovic on a record 36 Masters titles.
The 34-year-old, who had to come from behind to edge out Lopez, raced through the opener against Thompson in just 31 minutes, breaking twice and sealing it on his fourth set point after a brief stutter from 40-0 up in the seventh game.
Thompson put up more...
