Nadal battles past Wawrinka

A 45-minute rain interruption did little to stop the progress of Rafael Nadal on Thursday at the Toronto Masters as he defeated Stan Wawrinka 7-5, 7-6 (7/4) to reach the quarterfinals.

The halt in proceedings came 63 minutes into the opening set, after Wawrinka saved a Nadal set point for 5-all, with the Spaniard then holding serve for 6-5.

When the weather passed, the pair returned, with Nadal wrapping up the set on his second chance.

The second set was a battle as the Swiss, a three-time Grand Slam champion, fought back from an early break down, took a 2-1 lead, with the pair again trading breaks in the fifth and tenth games.

Nadal came from a mini-break down in the tiebreaker and secured victory on his second match point.

"It was a good match, a very positive victory for me over a tough opponent," Nadal said. "I'm happy to see Stan playing well again. We had a good quality of tennis.

"I'm very pleased, I needed a match like this. It does much for the confidence."

Second seed Alexander Zverev, the holder, lined up a re-run of last week's Washington semifinal as he again takes on Stefanos Tsitsipas.

The Greek who turns 20 on Sunday knocked out his second seed in as many matches, stunning Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals.

Zverev rolled over Russian Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 6-2 in 52 minutes while never facing a break point.

Tsitsipas called his knockout of Djokovic, "the best match of my career. I knew I was playing pretty good today."

"He played very well and deserved to win without a doubt," Djokovic said. "I just played not that great. I didn't return well."