Nadal cruises past Pospisil to reach China Open quarters

Djokovic has a flawless China Open record of 26 victories and no defeats, which has only been bettered in the Open Era by Rafael Nadal’s tally of 31 wins in the French Open before suffering his first loss.

Out-of-sorts Nadal was broken four times by China’s 230th-ranked Wu Di, who once tossed him balls and towels in Shanghai, before winning an error-strewn match 6-4, 6-4.

Djokovic’s work is still unfinished on Thursday as he has to play men’s doubles second round with his younger brother Djordjie Djokovic at night against Canada’s Vasek Pospisil and American player Jack Sock.

“The other one didn’t go my way”, shrugged Berdych after his first-round defeat to the 37th-ranked Cuevas.

Berdych ” the second seed in Beijing ” came into the tournament having won in Shenzhen last weekend, and is the highest-ranked player yet to secure a place at the ATP World Tour Finals in London.

Next up for the 33 year old is Chinese Taipei’s Yen-Hsun Lu, who continued to make the most of his wild card to upset Milos Raonic’s conqueror Viktor Troicki 6-4, 7-5. “It’s not easy to adjust”, Berdych said.

The world number one did not face a solitary break point as he saw off Zhang 6-2 6-1 in a one-sided second-round match at Beijing’s National Tennis Stadium.

“I think I played little bit too…far away from the baseline”, Nadal said.

Later, Wozniacki was brutally disposed of by a grimly determined Angelique Kerber 2-6, 3-6 as the Dane’s hopes of reaching the year-ending WTA Finals took a hit.

In the women’s draw, Agnieszka Radwanska knocked off an ailing Madison Keys when the American retired down a set due to a thigh injury.

Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland and Italy’s Sara Errani also made quarterfinals.

Among the later matches, Ana Ivanovic ended a seven-year wait for her third win against Venus Williams when she beat last week’s Wuhan Open champion 7-6 (7/3), 6-2. He rallied from 3-5 down in the first set to reel off 10 of the last 13 games against Rosol to book a quarter-final berth after one hour and 25 minutes.