Rafael Nadal of Spain hits a return to Milos Raonic of Canada during their men's singles match at the Shanghai Masters tennis tournament in Shanghai, east China, on Oct. 15, 2015. (Xinhua/Fan Jun)
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SHANGHAI, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Eighth seed Rafael Nadal of Spain overcame ninth seed Milos Raonic of Canada 6-3, 7-6 (3) to reach the quarterfinals of the Shanghai Rolex Masters on Thursday.
Having come from a hard-fought second round win over big-serving Croat Ivo Karlovic, Nadal finally gathered his momentum in the third round match as he put up the convincing win in one hour and 40 minutes.
Nadal was rarely troubled in the first set and went on to withstand some resistance from his Canadian rival in the second.
"My serve obviously worked much better than yesterday, but when I play well on my service game, it's not just because I serve well, but especially because I play well from the baseline," said Nadal, the former world number one.
"Winning a match 7-6 in the third set yesterday and winning a match again today in the tiebreak of a second set, two tiebreaks without losing a point with my serve, it's impossible if you don't have control of your emotions. That's something that, a couple of months ago, would have been impossible for me," added Nadal.
