CHINA-- Former world number one Rafa Nadal displayed more signs of a return to top form with a ruthless 6-2 6-1 hammering of Stan Wawrinka and was joined by Novak Djokovic in the Shanghai Masters semi-finals on Friday.
World number one Djokovic, twice champion in Shanghai, was tested by Australian Bernard Tomic before winning 7-6(6) 6-1 to stay on course for a ninth title of the year having picked up his eighth last week in Beijing.
"It was a very good first set," Djokovic told the ATP website (www.atpworldtour.com). "High quality tennis from both of us.
"Obviously it was a huge relief for me to win the first set, and started off the second with a break. That gave me more confidence."
Djokovic will face third seed Andy Murray, who barely broke a sweat in defeating Tomas Berdych 6-1 6-3, for a place in the final.
Nadal, a winner of 14 grand slam titles, suffered a second-round defeat by Dustin Brown at Wimbledon and was ousted in the U.S. Open third round by Fabio Fognini but has enjoyed a resurgence since arriving in China.
The 29-year-old Spaniard, seeded eighth in Shanghai, reached the final in Beijing last week and needed little more than an hour to breeze past French Open champion Wawrinka, who toiled for close to three hours late on Thursday to get past Marin Cilic.
"Being in the semi-finals is a great result for me," said Nadal. "I hadn't played the semi-finals on hard court all year and now I am playing two weeks in a row in the final rounds.
"That's a big improvement for me. In terms of confidence, in terms of level of tennis, I am playing better. Very happy for that because I am working so hard."
Swiss Wawrinka, who had won his last two matches against Nadal, avoided the ignominy of suffering a bagel in the second set by claiming the sixth game after his opponent had raced to 5-0 on the back of a nine-game winning run.
Nadal, hoping to grab one of the four remaining ATP World Tour Finals spots in London, will next meet Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga for a place in Sunday's title decider.
Tsonga got the better of South Africa's Kevin Anderson in a gruelling 7-6(6) 5-7 6-4 match between two of the circuit's biggest hitters.
The Frenchman saved three set points during the tiebreaker and secured an early break in the deciding set to carry him through to the last four.
"It is a court that he likes to play on," Nadal said of Tsonga. "The court is quick. He feels comfortable on these surfaces because he has a huge serve, very, very good forehand.
"He's a very competitive player. When he's in the semi-finals it's because he's playing well. So it will be a very tough match."
New Orleans Saints wide receiver Willie Snead (83) runs after a catch while defended by Atlanta Falcons cornerback Robert Alford (23) in the first quarter of their game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Saints won 31-21. (Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports.)
TORONTO-- What started out as the inning from hell turned into seventh heaven for the Toronto Blue Jays as they channelled their anger into a four-run burst and a trip to the American League Championship with a 6-3 win over the Texas Rangers on Wednesday.
With the best-of-five series level at 2-2 a tense game turned during a stormy seventh inning, which had managers and umpires checking the rule book, featured two dugout clearing confrontations, an incensed capacity crowd showering the field with debris and Toronto playing the game under protest.
Jose Bautista then belted a three-run homer to give the Blue Jays a lead they would not surrender.
Things had turned bizarre when Toronto catcher Russell Martin's throw back to the pitcher deflected off Choo Shin-soo's bat and trickled to the infield allowing Roughned Odor to speed home from third to put Texas in front 3-2.
Confusion followed as both managers charged from the dugout to plead their cases to home plate umpire Dale Scott.
As the debate dragged on, the crowd filled the air with jeers and debris, some of which came close to hitting players.
Toronto's John Gibbons argued that Choo had interfered with Martin's throw back to reliever Aaron Sanchez but after a video review the run was confirmed.
"Choo's standing in the batters' box doing what he always does, the play's not dead, the ball was thrown, went off of Choo's hand," said Texas manager Jeff Banister. "It's still a live baseball. That's the rule.
"So how about my guy being heads-up and scoring on that play and not keeping his head down, because that's who we are."
That focus vanished in the bottom half of the seventh inning as the Rangers self-destructed and committed three consecutive errors on routine hits to allow Toronto to load the bases.
After Josh Donaldson hit a single into center to score Dalton Pompey to tie the game, Bautista slammed a three-run homer into the second deck, tossing the bat with added flair that prompted another benches-clearing confrontation.
" "I know crazy things happen in this game, especially this time of year ...I'm still not certain what happened, what was going on what the ruling is," said Gibbons.
"Really it came down to the rules are what they are and I'm still a bit in the fog about that.
"But you didn't want something like that to be the deciding run in a game of this magnitude, so that was kind of my beef. But the umpire crew did a great job, they really did."
LOS ANGELES - Daniel Murphy hit the go-ahead home run as the New York Mets beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-2 in the decisive fifth game of the National League Division Series on Thursday at Dodger Stadium.
Murphy's sixth-inning homer off Dodgers right-hander Zack Greinke was his third of the series and lifted the Mets into the NL Championship Series against the Chicago Cubs.
The opener of the best-of-seven series is on Saturday at Citi Field in New York.
Mets starter Jacob deGrom (2-0) struggled early on but regrouped and finished strong. He gave up two runs in the first but settled and allowed six hits with seven strikeouts and three walks in six innings.
Noah Syndergaard relieved deGrom and worked a scoreless seventh before closer Jeurys Familia came on in the eighth for the six-out save. Familia retired all six batters he faced.
Greinke (1-1), who might have pitched his last game for the Dodgers since he can opt out of his contract, gave up three runs on six hits with nine strikeouts and no walks in 6 2/3 innings.
The Mets jumped in front 1-0 in the first. With one out, Murphy's double scored right fielder Curtis Granderson, who led off with an infield hit.
Four consecutive singles in the bottom of the inning allowed the Dodgers to rally. Third baseman Justin Turner and right fielder Andre Ethier brought home shortstop Corey Seager and first baseman Adrian Gonzalez for a 2-1 Los Angeles lead.
In the fourth, Murphy opened with a single and advanced to second on a walk to first baseman Lucas Duda. Murphy continued running past second and stole third on the walk, as Turner left his position at third prematurely with no one covering as he headed to the right side of the diamond for a shift on the next batter, catcher Travis d'Arnaud.
D'Arnaud hit a sacrifice fly to left, scoring Murphy and knotting the score at 2-2.
Turner, a former Met, doubled in the third and fifth innings to give him a franchise-record six for the series, breaking Hanley Ramirez's mark of four set in the 2013 NLDS against the Atlanta Braves.
INDORE, India-- India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni hammered 92 not out and skilfully marshalled his bowlers to secure a series-levelling 22-run win against South Africa in the second one-day international on Wednesday.
With India reeling at 124-6, Dhoni's decision to bat first appeared to have backfired, but the 34-year-old produced an 86-ball blitz, hitting his fourth sixth off the final ball of the innings to help the hosts to a competitive 247-9.
Dhoni then returned to neatly stump Amla, take three catches and cleverly rotate his bowlers as South Africa were all out for 225 in the 44th over.
Left-arm spinner Axar Patel claimed career-best figures of 3-39, while paceman Bhuvneshwar Kumar also got three wickets as the hosts fiercely defended a modest total, aided by some smart catching.
"A lot of people wait with open sword, they want you to commit a few mistakes and have fun with it," said Dhoni, who has been under tremendous pressure with questions raging about his role in the squad.
"Overall I would not say a very good or a complete game, definitively we can play better, but it's good to win games," said the India captain after collecting the man-of-the-match award.
The Proteas had made public their plans to dismiss India's in-form batsman Rohit Sharma early and paceman Kagiso Rabada executed it in the second over of the day.
Ajinkya Rahane (51) hit his second successive fifty but India lost the top half of their batting order soon after crossing the 100-mark.
With his team in dire straits and his own reputation at stake, Dhoni let his bat do the talking as he went after the South African bowlers, helping India score 82 runs off the last 10 overs.
The visitors began their chase well but the Indians struck regularly to keep the Proteas in check at Indore's Holkar Cricket Stadium.
Patel wrecked the tourists' top order and Virat Kohli made amends for his batting failure by taking three catches, two of them sent back South Africa's topscorer Faf du Plessis (51) and the dangerous AB de Villiers.
"We had a good start upfront... there is enough experience among myself, (Farhaan) Behardien and (David) Miller to pull it through but unfortunately we got out soft ways tonight," said De Villiers.
Rajkot hosts the third ODI of the five-match series on Sunday.
