After victories by Spanish player Rafael Nadal and American John Isner in the round of 16 of the China Open, they will have to face each other on Friday in the quarterfinals.
Thursday was marked by the elimination of two of the favorites on the women’s side, Czech Karolina Pliskova, and Dane Caroline Wozniacki.
Nadal had a relatively easy match against Russian Karen Khachanov, number 42 of the ATP ranking, who failed to decipher Nadal’s intelligent yet aggressive game to fall 6-3 and 6-3.
Last year the Spaniard, ranked number one in the world, was eliminated in this tournament the round of 16 when he fell to Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov. With this win, he will be able to maintain his distance in the rankings from Swiss Roger Federer, as they get ready to play Shanghai Masters 1000 next week.
Isner, on the other hand, relied on his powerful serve of over 124 miles per hour to comfortably beat Argentine Leonardo Mayer, 6-0 and 6-3.
In the other second-round matches today, Czech Tomas Berdych, seeded number seven, fell in three sets against Russian Andrey Rublev (1-6, 6-4 and 6-1), while German Alexander Zverev defeated Italian Fabio Fognini 6-4 and 6-2.
In the women’s side, where the last round-of-16 matches were played saw two seeded players fall. Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki, the fifth favorite, was defeated by Czech Petra Kvitova 6-1 and 6-4.
Czech Karolina Pliskova, a candidate to snatch the world’s number one rank from Spaniard Garbine Muguruza, was the other seed eliminated today. She was defeated by Romanian Sorana Cirstea 6-1 and 7-5.
The third seed in the open, Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, also a WTA No. 1 contender if she wins this week in Beijing, advanced to the quarterfinals by beating Russian Elena Vesnina in two sets by a score of 6- 2 and 7-5.
