Shanghai Masters: Rafael Nadal crushes Fabio Fognini, Roger Federer joins him in quarters

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. The Spaniard 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 is closing in on finishing the year as world number one for the first time since 2013 but Roger Federer, the only man who can stop him, is looking equally impressive. Federer delighted his small army of Chinese fans inside the Qi Zhong Centre with an emphatic 6-4 6-2 defeat of tricky Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov.

Fognini was playing the day after being handed a suspended ban from two grand slams and $96,000 fine for verbally abusing a female umpire at the U.S. Open. But there was little fight from the 30-year-old as Nadal lost only six points on serve in the opening set.

While a Nadal-Federer final looms, Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro could ruin the script, as he did at the U.S. Open where he defeated Federer in the quarter-finals when a semi-final between the two greats looked likely. The former …read more