SHANGHAI — World No. 1 Novak Djokovic sped into the Shanghai Masters quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Feliciano Lopez in just 71 minutes as he continued his magical run in China Thursday.
As Andy Murray and Jo-Wilfriend Tsonga toiled, the unstoppable Serb dominated Spain’s Lopez as he brought up his 14th win in a row including a winning streak of 16 straight sets.
Rafael Nadal’s recent resurgence, meanwhile, gathered pace when he beat Milos Raonic 6-3, 7-6 (7/6) to set up a quarterfinal with Kevin Anderson, who ousted Japanese heartthrob Kei Nishikori 7-6 (12/10), 7-6 (7/3).
Tomas Berdych dispatched Gilles Simon 6-3, 6-3, and French Open champion Stan Wawrinka won an almighty tussle with Marin Cilic 7-5, 6-7 (7/9), 6-4.
A magical backhand lob to break Lopez for 3-1 in the second set underlined the superiority of Djokovic, who claimed his sixth China Open title last week and has lost only five out of 75 matches this year.
Djokovic’s current unbeaten run stretches back to the Cincinnati Masters final in August and with his win in Beijing, he became the first man to top $15 million (13.1 million euros) in prize money in a single year.
Earlier, Andy Murray squeezed past John Isner and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was also pushed all the way before ending the giant-killing run of Spanish qualifier Albert Ramos-Vinolas.
Murray lost the first set on a tiebreak and he snapped at the umpire as his frustrations rose in the second set, before he finally broke the big-serving Isner and leveled the match at a set each.
The world No. 2 broke again for 4-3 in the decider and he left the American No. 1 on his backside as he fended off break points in his next service game, before going on to take it 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 6-4.
Seventieth-ranked Ramos-Vinolas came through qualifying before he stunned defending champion Roger Federer in the second round — but Tsonga proved a match too far.
However, the 27-year-old Spaniard gave the mercurial Frenchman a massive scare when he took the first set before going down fighting 6-7 (5/7), 7-5, 6-4 in two hours and 45 minutes.
Radwanska moves up
World No. 6 Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland swept into the Tianjin Open quarterfinals Thursday, dismissing the host country’s Wang Qiang in straight sets.
The second seed prevailed 6-1, 6-1 in less than an hour.
But sixth seed Teliana Pereira of Brazil went out to unseeded Danka Kovinic of Montenegro, who won 6-2, 5-7, 6-1.
The $500,000 WTA tournament has seen a run of upsets, the most spectacular when Italian top seed Flavia Pennetta, who won the US Open last month, went out to a player ranked more than 400 places below her, Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok.
Kichenok was eliminated herself Thursday by Duan Ying-Ying of China, 6-7, 6-2, 6-4.
Elizaveta Kulichkova of Russia defeated countrywoman Evgeniya Rodina 6-2, 7-5.
Venus in quarters
Venus Williams brushed aside Wang Yafan of China 6-0, 6-2 Thursday to reach the quarterfinals of the Hong Kong Open.
Williams will next play eighth-seeded Alize Cornet of France, who outlasted Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-4.
Seventh-seeded Caroline Garcia of France also reached the quarterfinals by defeating Anastasiya Komardina of Russia 6-0, 6-2.
Kvitova qualifies
Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova Wednesday became the fourth player to qualify for the WTA Finals, joining Simona Halep, Maria Sharapova and Garbine Muguruza in the eight-player field.
Czech star Kvitova won the season-ending showpiece on her 2011 debut.
Pavlyuchenkova in quarters
Seventh-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova defeated Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland 6-4, 6-0 Thursday to reach her sixth quarterfinal of the season at the Generali Ladies.
Pavlyuchenkova next plays 99th-ranked Serbian qualifier Aleksandra Krunic, who beat Mona Barthel of Germany 7-6 (6), 6-3.
Also, Johanna Larsson of Sweden advanced to the quarterfinals by defeating Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium 6-4, 7-6 (2).
Bouchard suing USTA over slip-fall at US Open
Tennis star Eugenie Bouchard filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the United States Tennis Association that alleges the sport’s national governing body was negligent, leaving her to slip and fall in a locker room during the US Open.
Bouchard, who was a runner-up at Wimbledon last year, has suffered severe pain and economic loss after the Sept. 4 incident, she said in the federal lawsuit filed in US District Court in Brooklyn that seeks unspecified monetary damages.
The 21-year-old Bouchard had just played in a mixed doubles match after earlier defeating Dominika Cibulkova when she returned to the locker room at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens shortly after 10 p.m. Minutes later, she slipped and fell on the tile floor of a physiotherapy room that is inside the locker room, slamming her head against the ground.
The fall left Bouchard with a concussion and “serious head injury.” She later withdrew from the US Open and tournaments in China and Japan.
