Andy Murray reaches Shanghai last eight but Rafael Nadal goes out
Last updated on .From the section Tennis
Defending champion Andy Murray moved into the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters, as Rafael Nadal went out.
Murray beat Stanislas Wawrinka 6-4 3-6 6-3, while top seed Nadal lost 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 to German Florian Mayer.
The British number one next faces Australian Matthew Ebden, who is ranked 124th in the world and beat Frenchman Gilles Simon 6-2 2-6 7-6 (10-8).
Victory over Wawrinka of Switzerland means the second-seeded Murray has now won 22 of his past 23 matches.
He served impressively to take the first set, but his opponent broke in the eighth game of the second to level.
Murray went 5-0 ahead in the final set and although Wawrinka staged a late rally by taking the next three games, the Scot held on to book an encounter against Ebden on Friday.
It was Murray's first match in the tournament after a bye and a walkover.
He said: "The first set I was up 3-0, two breaks, pretty quickly, and I went up 5-0 in the third set. Both sets got a little bit closer than maybe they needed to be."
French Open champion Nadal, outplayed by world number 23 Mayer, suffered a third-round defeat in Shanghai for the second successive year.
It is only the second time in 16 tournaments this year that the Spaniard has failed to make the quarter-finals. He lost in the second round of the Canadian Open to Croatia's Ivan Dodig in August.
Nadal staved off two break points in the first set with some stunning defensive play to take it to a tie-break, but Mayer raised his game again to take it.
The German then broke twice in the second to secure a quarter-final against Spain's Feliciano Lopez, who beat sixth seed Tomas Berdych 6-4 6-4.
Nadal's defeat means Novak Djokovic will finish the year as the world number one.
Third seed David Ferrer overcame an early onslaught from Spanish compatriot Juan Carlos Ferrero to win in three sets.
Ferrer is the fifth player to make sure of his place at the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London. World number one Novak Djokovic, Nadal, Roger Federer and Murray are the others.
Andy Roddick, Alexandr Dolgopolov and Kei Nishikori also won on Thursday.
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