Shanghai Open: Nadal battles past Dimitrov to reach semis

World number one Rafael Nadal kept alive his hopes of clinching his first Shanghai Rolex Masters title by booking his place in the semi-finals of the tournament with a win over Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in a three-set thriller here on Friday.

After comfortably winning the first set, the Spanish tennis maestro went down in the second before rebounding strongly to register his second victory over sixth-seeded Dimitrov for the second time in as many weeks in the quarter-finals of the men's singles event.

The final score of the last-eight clash that lasted more than three hours read 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-3 in favour of Nadal.

With the win, Nadal, who is currently riding a 15-match winning streak, improved to an ATP World Tour-best 64-9 match record in 2017.

It should be recalled that the top-seed had earlier beaten Dimitrov last week in the China Open semi-finals by 6-3, 4-6, 6-1.

Nadal has not set up a clash against fourth-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia for a place in the summit showdown.