Rafael Nadal continued to scythe his way through the Shanghai Masters on Thursday, reaching the quarter-finals with a 6-3, 6-1 thrashing of temperamental Italian Fabio Fognini. Nadal needed two minutes over the hour to dispatch Fognini, taking his winning streak to 14 matches since the start of the US Open where he claimed a 16th grand slam title. The 31-year-old Spaniard is closing in on finishing the year as world No 1 for the first time since 2013. Fognini was playing the day after being handed a suspended ban from two grand slams and US$96,000 (Dh352,617) fine for verbally abusing a female umpire at the US Open. Roger Federer avoided a potential banana skin in outclassing the Ukrainian qualifier Alexandr Dolgopolov to reach the quarter-finals. The Swiss legend looked rusty in his opener on Wednesday but was closer to his fluent best as he swatted away Dolgopolov 6-4, 6-2 in a swift 61 minutes on court. <strong>________________________________</strong> <strong>________________________________</strong> Federer, the second seed, plays either of the Frenchmen Gilles Simon or Richard Gasquet next. Former US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro won the match of the day by stopping third seed Alexander Zverev, recovering from losing the opener to win 3-6, 7-6, 6-4. Sixth seed Grigor Dimitrov, who saved match points on Wednesday against Ryan Harrison, had a more comfortable day as he beat American 10th seed Sam Querrey 6-3, 7-6. Dimitrov, closing in on a first appearance at the ATP World Tour Finals, plays Nadal next. Wimbledon runner-up Marin Cilic also eased into the quarter-finals with a 7-6, 6-4 defeat of American Steve Johnson.
