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BEIJING - Rafael Nadal polished his game at the expense of retiring Marat Safin Friday with the top-seeded Spaniard inflicting a 6-3, 6-1 quarter-final defeat on the retiring Russian.
With Safin set to quit the sport next month at Paris Bercy, the countdown to the end is on for the 29-year-old double grand slam champion.
"I played a really good match, both yesterday and today," said Nadal. "I'm feeling better now than during the American season.
"We'll see if I'm playing at my best level during the rest of the tournament."
Top seed Nadal took his second win in their series to reach a semi-final with Croatian Marin Cilic.
The number 15 upset fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko, who claimed his third title of the season last week in Kuala Lumpur, taking just over 90 minutes to go through 6-4, 6-4.
The result halted Davydenko's current run of form at six consecutive wins while Cilic, who knocked Andy Murray out in the US Open fourth round, improved to 3-0 over the world number eight Russian.
Cilic secured his 39th match win of the season against 16 losses as he bids for a third 2009 title, following victories in Chennai and Zagreb.
Novak Djokovic will bid to pass Murray into third in the world in the other semi-final, with the second-seed Serb facing Swede Robin Soderling.
Djokovic earned a three-set win over Spain's Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 1-6, 6-1 to move one win away from displacing the injured Murray.
The Serb will fall in behind Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal if he beats Roland Garros finalist Soderling of Sweden, a winner over Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic 7-6 (7/3), 6-3.
Murray has withdrawn from next week's Shanghai Masters with a lingering wrist injury and will slide down the rankings by being inactive and losing the winner's points he gained the same week a year ago.
Should he beat Soderling, Djokovic -- the 2008 Australian Open champion -- would overtake Murray when the ATP rankings come out on October 19, one day after the Shanghai final.
"I thought I was playing well and consistent this year, but I still dropped a spot," said the Serb. "That meant others were playing really well, including Andy Murray."
"I was surprised he pulled out from Shanghai, but that's how tennis is. It isn't the end of the year -- there are still three or four tournaments to go."
In women's action, Olympic champion here a year ago Elena Dementieva lost to Polish 12th seed Agnieszka Radwanska 7-5, 6-3.
"All the matches here were very close. You have to be 100 percent from the beginning of the tournament," said the beaten fourth seed. "I was just not good enough today."
Russia's sixth-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova marched ahead with a routine win 6-3, 6-4 over talented Russian teen Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who earlier this week knocked Venus Williams out of the 6.6-million-dollar mixed WTA/ATP event.
The elder Russian, the reigning French Open champion, will face fellow Russian Nadia Petrova, who beat China's Peng Shuai -- the home crowd's last hope in the tournament -- 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 6-2.
Petrova upset soon-to-be world number one Serena Williams on Thursday to reach the quarters, while Peng beat three-time Grand Slam winner Maria Sharapova.
Marion Bartoli heroically turned the tables as Russian seventh seed Vera Zvonareva served for a two-set victory, the Frenchwoman coming through to triumph 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 after more than two hours.
- AFP /ls
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