PARIS (AFP) – Rafael Nadal battled past Australian Jordan Thompson in straight sets to reach the Paris Masters quarter-finals on Thursday, as Diego Schwartzman moved within one win of securing an ATP Tour Finals debut.
Top seed Nadal got the better of Thompson, 6-1, 7-6 (7/3), to set up a last-eight clash with fellow Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta, who must win the title this week to have a chance of snatching the last Tour Finals spot from Schwartzman.
World number 61 Thompson missed a set point to force a decider in his first meeting with the 20-time Grand Slam champion.
Nadal, who claimed his 1,000th career victory by beating Feliciano Lopez on Wednesday, is bidding for a first Paris indoors triumph which would draw him level with Novak Djokovic on a record 36 Masters titles.
The 34-year-old, who had to come from behind to edge out Lopez, raced through the opener against Thompson in just 31 minutes, breaking twice and sealing it on his fourth set point after a brief stutter from 40-0 up in the seventh game.
Thompson put up more of a fight in the second set, but missed a set point when 6-5 ahead as a Hawkeye challenge showed a Nadal backhand had landed on the baseline.
Nadal held his serve and upped his game in the tie-break to secure victory.
The world number two has still never failed to reach the quarter-finals at Bercy in his eight appearances despite only making the final once, when he lost to David Nalbandian in 2007.
Swiss veteran Stan Wawrinka made the quarter-finals with a comeback 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over in-form Andrey Rublev of Russia.
Rublev, who has a season-best 40 wins in 2020, had already made sure of his place at the ATP Finals.
Wawrinka will next face German fourth seed Alexander Zverev who defeated home hope Adrian Mannarino 7-6 (13/11), 6-7 (7/9), 6-4
