seeded Rafael Nadal advanced to the quarterfinals of the Japan Open with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Milos Raonic of Canada Thursday. The No. 2-ranked Nadal will take on unseeded Santiago Giraldo of Colombia in the final eight. Giraldo beat Dmitry Tursunov of Russia 6-4, 7-6 (4). “I was happy with almost everything today,” Nadal said. “I was focused with my serves without mistakes. I lost very few points on my serve in the last set.” In other matches, second-seeded Andy Murray overwhelmed Alex Bogomolov Jr. of the United States 6-1, 6-2 in less than an hour, and third-seeded David Ferrer of Spain advanced with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Australian qualifier Matthew Ebden. Trailing 6-5 and serving at 30-30 in the 12th game of the first set, Raonic double-faulted to hand Nadal a set point and then hit a forehand long to give the Spaniard the set. In the second set, Nadal broke the big-serving Raonic in the sixth game to go up 4-2, then stayed on serve and closed out the contest in 1 hour, 30 minutes. Nadal, the defending champion, got in 77 percent of his first serves in the victory and Raonic was not able to gain a single break point against the 10-time Grand Slam champion. Raonic's powerful forehand was impressive, but he also committed several crucial unforced errors in the loss. Murray lost to Bogomolov Jr. earlier this year but once he broke serve in the first game, the No. 4-ranked Briton was never troubled again. Murray wants to finish the year on a high by overtaking Roger Federer for the No. 3 ranking. Murray, who won in Bangkok last week, will face David Nalbandian in the quarterfinals, after the Argentine beat Ivan Dodig of Croatia 7-6 (2), 6-2. Tsonga, Wozniacki advance Top-seeded players Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Caroline Wozniacki both advanced to the quarterfinals at the China Open Thursday. Tsonga beat Chinese qualifier Zheng Ze 6-3, 6-4 and Wozniacki defeated Kaia Kanepi of Estonia 6-3, 7-6 (3). In the next round, the Frenchman will face Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain, who beat Marcel Granollers 6-4, 6-4. Also in Friday's quarterfinals, Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic will face Fernando Verdasco of Spain, Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia will meet Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, and Kevin Anderson of South Africa will play Marin Cilic of Croatia. In the women's tournament, Wozniacki will next face Flavia Pennetta of Italy, who defeated Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-1, 4-6, 6-4. Also, second-seeded Victoria Azarenka pulled out of the tournament because of a right foot injury, giving 13th-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia a walkover win. In other quarterfinal matches, Pavlyuchenkova will face Andrea Petkovic of Germany and Monica Niculescu of Romania will take on Maria Kirilenko of Russia.
