Nadal into Hamburg quarters

Hamburg - Rafael Nadal eased into the Hamburg Open quarter-finals on Thursday with a 6-4, 7-6 (7/2) win over Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic as the Spaniard continues to try and resuscitate his flagging season.

The top-seeded Mallorcan, playing the summer clay-court tournament for the first time in seven years, goes on to face fifth-seeded Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas, who battled past Jerzy Janowicz of Poland 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.

Nadal, the 2008 champion in Hamburg, extended his clay record in 2015 to 23-6 as he looks to add to his 46 clay-court titles.

Nadal has endured a tough year, losing his French Open title, getting knocked out in the second round at Wimbledon and seeing his ranking slump to 10, his lowest in a decade.

Results from the fourth day of the Hamburg ATP claycourt tournament on Thursday (x denotes seeding):

Second round

Rafael Nadal (ESP x1) bt Jiri Vesely (CZE) 6-4, 7-6 (7/2)

Pablo Cuevas (URU x5) bt Jerzy Janowicz (POL) 6-3, 4-6, 6-2

Andreas Seppi (ITA x4) bt Florian Mayer (GER) 4-6, 6-2, 6-3

Simone Bolelli (ITA) bt Jaume Munar (ESP) 6-1, 6-7 (5/7), 6-4