Rafael Nadal defeats Stan Wawrinka to keep his hopes of becoming No 1 alive
Thursday 31 October 2019 21:16, UK
Kyle Edmund's Paris Masters revival came to an end as he went down in straight sets to Novak Djokovic on Thursday.
The British No 2 had posted back-to-back wins against Ricardas Berankis and Diego Schwartzman after arriving in the French capital on an eight-match losing streak going back to August.
But he came up against formidable opposition and Djokovic eventually came through, despite a hard-fought first set, winning 7-6 (11-9) 6-1 for his 50th victory of 2019.
The 24-year-old hurt Djokovic with some fearsome forehand winners early on and saved two set points to send the opener to a tie-break.
He had to save four more in the decider, before the Serbian eventually got the job done to take the set and go in front, seemingly breaking the spirit of Edmund who crumbled in the second.
An early Djokovic break of serve to love set the tone and he powered through six successive games to book a last-16 meeting with seventh seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, after the Greek beat Australian Alex De Minaur 6-3 6-4.
Rafael Nadal won his 13th consecutive match and 50th overall this season as he defeated Stan Wawrinka 6-4 6-4 to advance to a meeting with Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
The Spaniard was playing Wawrinka for the 22nd time and he extended his record to 19-3 over the Swiss thanks to a consummate performance.
The result ended Wawrinka's hopes of qualifying for the season-ending ATP Finals, leaving only Frenchman Gael Monfils and Italian Matteo Berrettini with a chance to grab the last of eight spots for the November 10-17 showdown.
Nadal, who is 9-4 against tournament wildcard Tsonga, won their last meeting at Wimbledon in July.
Tsonga edged Jan-Lennard Struff 2-6 6-4 7-6 (8-6) after saving two match points in the final set tie-break.
Fifth seed Dominic Thiem was knocked out 6-3 6-2 to Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, who will play his first quarter-final at a Masters event since Canada 2018. Coming into this week, Dimitrov had lost in the third round of the Paris Masters six years in a row.
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