Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., smacks a backhand return in a 7-5, 6-3 loss to Rafael Nadal at Ariake Colosseum on Thursday. (Koji Watanabe/Getty Images)
Top-seeded Rafael Nadal advanced to the quarterfinals of the Japan Open with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Canada's Milos Raonic in Tokyo on Thursday.
Nadal, ranked No. 2, will take on unseeded Santiago Giraldo of Colombia in the final eight. Giraldo beat Dmitry Tursunov of Russia 6-4, 7-6 (4) earlier.
In other matches, second-seeded Andy Murray overwhelmed Alex Bogomolov Jr. of the United States 6-1, 6-2 in less than an hour, and third-seeded David Ferrer of Spain advanced with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Australian qualifier Matthew Ebden.
Trailing 6-5 and serving at 30-30 in the 12th game of the first set, Raonic double-faulted to hand Nadal a set point and then hit a forehand long to give the Spaniard the set.
In the second set, Nadal broke the big-serving Raonic in the sixth game to go up 4-2, then stayed on serve and closed out the contest in 1 hour, 30 minutes.
Nadal, the defending champion, got in 77 per cent of his first serves in the victory and Raonic was not able to gain a single break point against the 10-time Grand Slam champion in the match.
Raonic's powerful forehand was impressive, but he also committed several unforced errors in the defeat.
