World No. 1 and top seed Rafael Nadal reached the quarterfinals of the China Open with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Karen Khachanov Thursday. Nadal saved six break points he faced and broke Khachanov three times to take the win in 89 minutes and improved to an ATP World Tour-best 58 match wins in 2017. The win padded Nadal's lead over Roger Federer for the year-end No. 1 in the ATP Rankings to 1,950 points.

Federer can gain some ground if he wins next week’s Shanghai Rolex Masters, where 1,000 ranking points are given to the winner.

For a spot in the semifinal, Nadal will battle sixth seed John Isner, who defeated Leonardo Mayer, 6-0, 6-3, in under an hour after hitting eight aces and converting all four of his break points. The 32-year-old Isner is eyeing his third ATP World Tour crown of the season this week after victories in Newport and Atlanta. However, Isner is in for a tough match as he has yet to beat Nadal in their seven clashes. Nadal, for his part, will go for his sixth tour-level crown this season.

Nadal has an outstanding 2017 where he won two Grand Slam crowns at the French Open and the US Open. He has also captured two ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crowns in Monte-Carlo and Madrid.

Andrey Rublev stuns Tomas Berdych

Andrey Rublev defeated World No. 20 Tomas Berdych, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1, in one hour and 48 minutes to book a spot in the quarterfinals where he will face Alexander Zverev. Rubley trailed Berdych, 1-6, 1-3, before taking 11 of the next 13 games en route to his third Top 20 win of his career. Earlier, Rublev took out No. 9 Grigor Dimitrov and No. 14 David Goffin at this year’s US Open. Rublev also reached his fourth quarterfinal of the season and won his first title as a lucky loser at the Plava Laguna Croatia Open in Umag this July.

Loss a big blow to Berdych’s ATP Finals’ chances

The loss was a big blow to Berdych’s campaign to make it to the Nitto ATP Finals. Currently, he’s sitting No. 14 in the ATP Race To London standings and could have boosted his chances if he only defeated Rublev. Berdych is still looking for his first title in 2017. Zverev, for his part, tallied he earned his 50th ATP World Tour match victory of the season via a 6-4, 6-2 triumph over Fabio Fognini in 73 minutes. The German broke Fognini four times en route to a victory that boosted his chances of winning his sixth ATP World Tour title in 2017. Zverev is currently tied with Nadal and Federer with five titles each this year.