China Open 2017: Rafael Nadal Eases into Quarter-Finals Ahead of Karen Khachanov

Rafael Nadal reached the quarter-finals of the 2017 China Open on Thursday as he eased past Karen Khachanov 6-3, 6-3.

Meanwhile, women's third seed Elina Svitolina overcame Elena Vesnina 6-2, 7-5, but fourth seed Karolina Pliskova was upset by Sorana Cirstea 6-1, 7-5.

Full tournament results and an updated schedule are available via the China Open website.

Recap

It looked as though Khachanov was set to give Nadal a tough time on Thursday as he came close to breaking him in the opening game.

However, after saving three break points, the Spaniard quickly raced to a 4-1 lead as he controlled the court, and his dominance was highlighted during the longer rallies in particular.

The world No. 1 maintained his momentum in the second set as he secured an early break, per Tennis TV:

Nadal eased through the second in similar fashion, though his opponent did produce one of the shots of the match:

The result was never in doubt, however, and the top seed will face John Isner in the last eight.

Some powerful returning saw Vesnina break Svitolina early in their first set to take a 2-1 lead, but the Ukrainian hit back immediately as she rattled off five games in succession.

Vesnina grabbed the first break again in the much tighter second set, taking a 4-3 lead after a 13-minute game that ended with the Russian pulling off a sensational, if fortuitous, sliced forehand, per the WTA:

Svitolina broke her twice as she battled back in an impressive turnaround to book her place in the next round.

Cirstea capped a magnificent first set with back-to-back aces against world No. 4 Pliskova, who looked set to force a decider when she went 5-2 up in the second.

The Romanian saved four set points on her way to levelling the scores before going on to claim her first win over a player ranked in the top five in 10 matches.

Jelena Ostapenko will be her rival in the quarter-finals after her opponent Peng Shuai was forced to retire with a knee injury just 11 minutes into their match.