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Cape Town - South Africa’s Kevin Anderson has set up a Round of 16 duel with Spaniard Rafael Nadal at the Paris Masters indoors event.
Anderson reached the last 16 after prevailing against Austria’s Dominic Thiem on Wednesday night.
The South African No 1 survived three tight sets to win 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/5).
Nadal took just 61 minutes to send old foe Lukas Rosol crashing out, defeating the big-serving Czech 6-2, 6-2.
Rosol famously stunned Nadal at Wimbledon in 2012 and he served for the match against him in Basel last week, before the Spaniard fought back to win in three sets.
Anderson and Nadal have met twice before on the ATP World Tour, with the Spaniard winning both encounters.
Nadal won 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) at a Masters 1000 event in Canada in 2010, while he also beat Anderson 7-5, 6-1, 6-4 at this year’s Australian Open.
The winner of Thursday’s clash is likely to face French Open Stan Wawrinka in the quarter-finals, with the Swiss favoured to beat Serbia’s Viktor Troicki.
Results on the third day of the ATP Paris Masters on Wednesday (x denotes seeded player):
Second round
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA x9) bt Roberto Bautista (ESP) 6-2, 6-2
Tomas Berdych (CZE x5) bt Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) 6-3, 4-6, 7-5
Viktor Troicki (SRB) bt Feliciano Lopez (ESP x15) 6-7 (7/9), 7-5, 6-4
Kevin Anderson (RSA x11) bt Dominic Thiem (AUT) 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/5)
Rafael Nadal (ESP x7) bt Lukas Rosol (CZE) 6-2, 6-2
Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) bt Marin Cilic (CRO x12) 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/2)
John Isner (USA x13) bt Aljaz Bedene (GBR) 6-3, 7-6 (7/3)
Roger Federer (SUI x3) bt Andreas Seppi (ITA) 6-1, 6-1
Kei Nishikori (JPN x6) bt Jeremy Chardy (FRA) 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (6/8), 6-1
Richard Gasquet (FRA x10) bt Leonardo Mayer (ARG) 6-2, 7-5
David Goffin (BEL x16) bt Dusan Lajovic (SRB) 6-2, 6-2
Andy Murray (GBR x2) bt Borna Coric (CRO) 6-1, 6-2
