Nadal reaches Toronto quarters, Djoko stunned
A 45-minute rain interruption did little to stop the progress of Rafael Nadal at the Toronto Masters as he defeated Stan Wawrinka 7-5, 7-6 (7/4) to reach the quarter-finals. The halt in proceedings came 63 minutes into the opening set, after Wawrinka saved a Nadal set point for 5all, with the Spaniard then holding serve for 6-5.
When the weather passed, the pair returned, with Nadal wrapping up the set on his second chance.
The second set was a battle as the Swiss, a three-time Grand Slam champion, fought back from an early break down, took a 2-1 lead, with the pair again trading breaks in the fifth and tenth games.
Nadal came from a minibreak down in the tiebreaker and secured victory on his second match point. “It was a good match, a very positive victory for me over a tough opponent,” Nadal said.
“I’m happy to see Stan playing well again. We had a good quality of tennis.
“I’m very pleased, I needed a match like this. It does much for the confidence.”
Second seed Alexander Zverev, the holder, lined up a re-run of last week’s Washington semi-final as he again takes on Stefanos Tsitsipas. The Greek, who turns 20 on Sunday, knocked out his second seed in as many matches, stunning Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals.
Zverev rolled over Russian Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 6-2 in 52 minutes while never facing a break point. Tsitsipas called his knockout of Djokovic, “the best match of my career. I knew I was playing pretty good today.”
Sixth seed Marin Cilic con- tinued his quiet progress, beating Argentine 11th seed Diego Schwartzman 6-3, 6-2.
Canadian teen Denis Shapovalov went down to Robin Haase, losing 7-5, 6-2, ending local interest.