Rafael Nadal's improved end to the year continued this afternoon as he gave up just three games in a convincing quarter-final victory over Stanislas Wawrinka at the Shanghai Masters.
Nadal, who lost to Novak Djokovic in the final of the China Open last week, is through to just his third Masters 1000 semi-final of the year thanks to today's comfortable 6-2 6-1 victory.
The first five games of the match went with serve as Wawrinka stayed in touch, but the Swiss then lost nine games in a row as Nadal took the first set 6-2 before moving 5-0 up in the second.
Wawrinka, who won last week's tournament in Tokyo, stopped the rot with a hold of serve, but Nadal was soon celebrating victory as he served out the match in just over an hour.
The Spaniard will be up against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in tomorrow's semi-final after the Frenchman battled past Kevin Anderson in a lengthy three-set affair.
Pascal Lemesre
