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Top seeds Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic both went through the hair-dryer treatment on Friday as they were severely stretched in the quarterfinals of the 2009 Shanghai ATP Masters 1000. Nadal came back from a set down to level his match with former world no.3 Ivan Ljubicic before the big Croatian was forced to retire because of a hip injury. A few hours before that match, Djokovic was tested by one of the brightest young talents in tennis today as Gilles Simon lost a highly entertaining encounter to the red hot Serb.

Nadal dropped his serve on the only breakpoint he conceded in the 4th game of the opening set, and failed to take either of his two opportunities to break the Ljubicic serve. The Spaniard was in tr ouble again early in the second, but fought off 4 breakpoints (including from 0-40 down) to hold serve for a 2-1 lead. Nadal carried the momentum into the next game to break the Ljubicic serve to love.

Nadal missed a host of opportunities to pick up a second break in the set, and was almost made to pay right at the death as Ljubicic earned a breakpoint as Nadal served for the set. Nadal held on however to level the match at a set apiece. Ljubicic, who had already had treatment once in the match for hip pain called the trainer out for a second time at the end of the set. The pain was however too much for the Croatian to bear, and he decided to call it quits.

Up next for Nadal is fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez, who pulled off a shock upset win over no.9 seed Sweden's Robin Soderling. Soderling was by far the better player in the opening set right upto the tiebreak, which Lopez snuck away with 7-4. The second set was close too, with both players serving exceptionally well. Soderling dropped just 7 points on serve all set but 4 of them came in a single game as Lopez picked up the only break of the set to win the match 7-6, 6-3. Lopez has beaten Nadal once in five meetings, with that triumph coming the only other time they played on hard courts.

The result comes as a huge blow for Soderling's chances of making the year-end ATP Masters Cup extravaganza in London and the Swede heads home to Stockholm next week to defend the points he picked up in his run to the final last year.

In easily one of the highlights of the week, Novak Djokovic and Gilles Simon played some brilliant and some exasperating tennis in a near two and a half hour encounter. The world no.3 raced to an early lead in the match only to be broken back, but regained his composure to pull out the first set 6-3. Simon played an outstanding second set to break twice, allowing Djokovic just 3 points from 12 on his second serve to level the match.

The third set was a comedy of errors as five consecutive breaks of serve saw Djokovic pull ahead 3-2, before a crucial hold and a fourth break of the Simon serve allowed the Serb to wrap up the match.

Up next for Djokovic is another Master Cup aspirant, indeed the man Djokovic beat in last year's final amazingly right here in Shanghai, Nikolay Davydenko. The Russian ace dropped the second set in between winning the first and third by the same score rather easily 6-1. The two are yet to play each other this season, with Djokovic beating Davydenko twice in Shanghai last year after the Russian had won their first ever meeting in the Davis Cup.

Friday Scores:

Singles - Quarter-finals
[1] R Nadal (ESP) d I Ljubicic (CRO) 36 63 ret. (left hip)
[2] N Djokovic (SRB) d [8] G Simon (FRA) 63 26 62
[6] N Davydenko (RUS) d [13] R Stepanek (CZE) 61 46 61
F Lopez (ESP) d [9] R Soderling (SWE) 76(4) 63

File Photograph Copyright: Brett Marlow