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atpworldtour.com: May 8 2014 Madrid – World No. 1 Rafael Nadal overcame a second-set fightback from Jarkko Nieminen to reach the Mutua Madrid Open quarter-finals with a 6-1, 6-4 victory on Thursday in the Spanish capital.

Defending champion Nadal let slip a 3-1 lead in the second set and saved a break point in the ninth game before breaking the Finn to claim victory in 80 minutes. Nadal goes on to face sixth seed Tomas Berdych, who fought from a set down to beat Grigor Dimitrov 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in one hour and 50 minutes. The Czech, who was runner-up in Madrid in 2012 (l. to  Federer), withstood 12 aces to break Dimitrov three times, recording his first win in three meetings over the Bulgarian.

Tenth seed Kei Nishikori came up with clutch tennis in two tie-breaks to beat eighth seed Milos Raonic 7-6(5), 7-6(5) in the third round of the Mutua Madrid Open on Thursday. The Japanese star rallied from 2-5 down in the first set and won five points more than Raonic to claim victory in just over two hours.

Nishikori goes on to face Feliciano Lopez, who was given a walkover into the quarter-finals when rising star Dominic Thiem was forced to withdraw due to illness. Thiem had stunned recent Monte-Carlo champion Stanislas Wawrinka in the second round.

World No. 46 Santiago Giraldo powered into the quarter-finals of the Mutua Madrid Open on Thursday as he recorded his first Top 10 win by defeating Andy Murray 6-3, 6-2.

The 26-year-old Colombian is through to his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 quarter-final after claiming his first Top 10 win in 20 attempts. He came into Madrid on the back of reaching his first ATP World Tour 500 final in Barcelona, where he finished runner-up to Kei Nishikori. For a place in the semi-finals, Giraldo will face Roberto Bautista Agut, who is also into his first Masters 1000 quarter-final after defeating lucky loser Lukasz Kubot 6-4, 6-2. Kubot had originally taken Roger Federer’s place in the draw.

wtatennis.com: May 8 2014 Madrid – - Serena Williams beat Carla Suárez Navarro to not only reach the quarterfinals of the Mutua Madrid Open, but to become the 11th player in WTA history to reach 650 career match wins. Williams hit 14 winners to 11 unforced and won five of the last six games of the match to close it out, 6-2, 6-3. She hit her first ace on match point.

Next up for Williams is No.5 seed Petra Kvitova, who rebounded from an early 4-0 hole to beat Lucie Safarova earlier in the day, 6-4, 6-3. Williams has beaten Kvitova in all five of their previous meetings, though they've never played each other on clay - and Kvitova won this title too, back in 2011.

Maria Sharapova maintained her mastery of Samantha Stosur 6-4 6-3 on Thursday to set up a tantalizing quarterfinal clash with Li Na at the Premier Mandatory event.  Li Na and Sloane Stephens met for the first time and it was worth the wait, as the two put on a three set thriller for the crowd - with Li winning 2-6 6-3 6-2.

Simona Halep rallied from a set down to beat Sabine Lisicki in the last match on Thursday's jam-packed round of 16 schedule.  The No.4-seeded Halep struggled with the No.15-seeded Lisicki's huge game early on, dropping a long 52-minute first set, 7-5, and coming just a few games from losing in the second set, falling behind, 3-2. But she found her range just in time, cutting out some costly unforced errors and hitting her targets more and more, eventually winning 10 of the next 12 games to cruise to victory, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2.

Awaiting Halep in the quarterfinals is No.11 seed Ana Ivanovic, who needed just 67 minute to beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova earlier in the day, 6-1, 6-2. Ivanovic is now 6-0 against the Russian.