Top seeds advance in Tokyo

Tokyo - Top-seeded Rafael Nadal advanced to the quarterfinals of the Japan Open with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Milos Raonic of Canada on Thursday.

Nadal, ranked number 2, will take on unseeded Santiago Giraldo of Colombia in the final eight. Giraldo beat Dmitry Tursunov of Russia 6-4, 7-6 (4) earlier.

In other matches, second-seeded Andy Murray overwhelmed Alex Bogomolov Jr. of the United States 6-1, 6-2 in less than an hour, and third-seeded David Ferrer of Spain advanced with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Australian qualifier Matthew Ebden.

Trailing 6-5 and serving at 30-30 in the 12th game of the first set, Raonic double-faulted to hand Nadal a set point and then hit a forehand long to give the Spaniard the set.

In the second set, Nadal broke the big-serving Raonic in the sixth game to go up 4-2, then stayed on serve and closed out the contest in 1 hour, 30 minutes.

Nadal, the defending champion, got in 77 percent of his first serves in the victory and Raonic was not able to gain a single break point against the 10-time Grand Slam champion in the match.

Raonic's powerful forehand was impressive, but he also committed several unforced errors in the defeat.