Former world number one Rafa Nadal displayed more signs of a return to top form with a ruthless 6-2 6-1 hammering of Stan Wawrinka and was joined by Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray in the Shanghai Masters semi-finals.
World number one Djokovic, twice champion in Shanghai, was tested by Australian Bernard Tomic before winning 7-6(6) 6-1 to stay on course for a ninth title of the year having picked up his eighth last week in Beijing.
Murray had no such trouble as he breezed past Tomas Berdych in fine style with a 6-1 6-3 victory.
World number one Djokovic will play Murray in the semi-finals on Saturday with a chance to avenge his defeat by the Scot at the Montreal Masters the first match Murray had won against Djokovic in over two years, and one of only five matches that Djokovic has lost all season.
Nadal, a winner of 14 grand slam titles, suffered a second-round defeat to Dustin Brown at Wimbledon and was ousted in the U.S. Open third round by Fabio Fognini but has enjoyed a resurgence since arriving in China and on Friday he enjoyed a landmark win as he earned a first top-five scalp for over a year.
The 29-year-old Spaniard, seeded eighth in Shanghai, reached the final in Beijing last week and needed little more than an hour to breeze past French Open champion Wawrinka, who toiled for close to three hours late on Thursday to get past Marin Cilic.
Swiss Wawrinka, who had won his last two matches against Nadal, avoided the ignominy of suffering a bagel in the second set by claiming the sixth game after his opponent had raced to 5-0 on the back of a nine-game winning run.
Nadal, hoping to grab one of the four remaining ATP World Tour Finals spots in London, will next meet Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga for a place in Sunday’s title decider.
Tsonga got the better of South Africa’s Kevin Anderson in a gruelling 7-6(6) 5-7 6-4 match between two of the circuit’s biggest hitters.
