No. 1 seed Rafael Nadal has reached the Shanghai Rolex Masters semi-finals. World No. 1 Nadal managed to win his tricky quarter-finals clash. The Spaniard needed three sets to beat No. 6 seed Grigor Dimitrov 6-4 6-7 (4) 6-3.
Nadal saved a break point his first service game of the match before he made it 1-1. Nadal broke Dimitrov in the ninth game to open up a 5-4 lead. The No. 1 seed then successfully served out for the first set in the following game.
As no breaks of serve were seen, the second set went into a tie-break. Nadal seemed to be cruising to straight sets win as he was up by 4-2 in the tie-break.
Dimitrov then won five points in a row to clinch the set in style and force a decider.
Nadal saved a break point in the fifth game of the third set before he took a 3-2 lead. Dimitrov blew a game point in the following game as Nadal broke the No. 6 seed for a 4-2 lead. The Spaniard then held on to his serve the rest of the match to clinch the win.
Nadal broke Dimitrov twice and saved each two of the Bulgarian's break point chances on Friday. Dimitrov fired 13 aces, but it wasn't enough. The clash came to an end after just over two hours and a half of play.
Nadal plays Cilic next
Nadal is set to meet No. 4 seed Marin Cilic in the Shanghai Rolex Masters semi-finals. Croatian Cilic saw off world No.
25 Albert Ramos in the quarter-finals 6-3 6-4. Cilic now has four wins and two losses against Ramos.
Cilic saved a break point in each of his first three service games of the match. Cilic then converted his first break point chance of the match to take a 4-2 lead. The Croatian gave no more break points to Ramos as he went on seal the first set.
Cilic broke Ramos in the fifth game of the second set to take a 3-2 lead. However, Ramos bounced back immediately, as he broke Cilic in the following game to make it 3-3. Ramos then once again dropped his serve in the seventh game as Cilic went on to serve out for the set and the match, eventually.
Cilic fired 10 aces and won 87 percent of his first serve points during the match.
Cilic converted 3-of-10 of his break point chances and saved 3-of-4 of Ramos' break point opportunities. The match came to an end after an hour and 21 minutes of action.
Cilic hoping to end his drought
Nadal and Cilic will be meeting for the sixth time when they clash at the Shanghai Rolex Masters. Nadal has a 4-1 edge over Cilic. Croatia's Cilic beat the Spaniard in their first-ever meeting at the China Open in 2009. It remains to be seen can Cilic pull off an upset and beat Nadal for the first time in eight years
