Rafael Nadal fends off Stan Wawrinka to reach Paris Masters quarter-finals

Spanish tennis maestro Rafael Nadal cemented his spot in the quarter-finals of the ongoing Rolex Paris Masters after brushing aside Swiss player Stan Wawrinka in straight sets in the last-16 clash of the men's singles event on Friday. 

The 33-year-old, who is seeking to clinch year-end No.1 spot in the ATP rankings, extended his mastery against Wawrinka with a 6-4, 6-4 triumph in a thrilling clash that lasted one hour and 27 minutes at Court Central. 

In the opening set, world number two Nadal broke Wawrinka in the third game before erasing a break point in the eighth game to clinch the set.

16th-seeded Wawrinka, who would have booked his place in the ATP Finals had he won the ongoing tournament, didn't see another break point throught the match and was broken at 4-4 in the second set to eventually hand a victory to Nadal. 

Following the clash, Nadal was pleased to seal an important victory against a tough opponent yet again. 

“I think my game worked well. On the return today, [it] was a little bit difficult. I think I didn't return as well as I was doing previous days... But it's true that Stan always has a good serve and [is] difficult to read. So [it was] an important victory for me, honestly, against a tough opponent again," the Association for Tennis Professionals (ATP) quoted Nadal,  who bagged all 10 of his net points, as saying. 

With the win, Nadal has now improved his ATP Head-to-Head rivalry against Wawrinka to 19-3. 

The Spaniard will now square off with France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who saved two match points against Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany to seal a 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(6) win and book his place in the last-eight of the tournament.