BEIJING, (Reuters) – World number two Rafa Nadal stopped Marat Safin’s Beijing revival in its tracks yesterday with a clinical 6-3 6-1 victory to reach the semi-finals of the $6.6-million China Open.
Spain’s Nadal, playing his first tournament since returning from an abdominal injury, dominated a brief but richly entertaining encounter against fellow former world number one Safin, who is retiring at the end of the season.
Elena Dementieva earlier joined the exodus of top women’s seeds when she was upset 7-5 6-3 by Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska in the quarter-finals of the WTA’s new “crown jewel” tournament.
Safin had served up 12 aces in his upset of seventh seed Fernando Gonzalez on Thursday but Nadal faced only one from the big Russian in front of a packed centre court.
Robbed of his serve, no amount of racket twirling and delicate net play could keep Safin in the match and Nadal converted his one break point in the first set and raced away with the second.