Pablo Carreno Busta and Rafael Nadal reached the China Open quarter-finals on Monday in Beijing as they upset third seeds Rohan Bopanna and Daniel Nestor 7-6(3), 6-4 in the first round.

The Spaniards have both enjoyed great success on the doubles court in 2016. Nadal partnered Marc Lopez to the gold medal at the Rio Olympics, while Carreno Busta was runner-up at the US Open with Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and also reached the final last week in Chengdu, with Mariusz Fyrstenberg (l. to Klaasen/Ram).

Nadal and Carreno Busta go on to face Chinese wild card pairing Mao-Xin Gong and Ze Zhang, who upset Americans Steve Johnson and Sam Querrey 3-6, 6-3, 10-4.

Paolo Lorenzi and Guido Pella dealt a blow to Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi’s Barclays ATP World Tour Finals hopes, upsetting the fourth seeds 3-6, 6-1, 10-4. Huey and Mirnyi are looking to qualify for the season finale together for the first time and are currently seventh in the Emirates ATP Doubles Race To London. But they have now suffered three successive first-round losses. They also fell at the US Open (l. to Almagro/Estrella-Burgos) and last week in Shenzhen (l. to Fognini/Lindstedt).

In the quarter-finals Lorenzi and Pella will face Jack Sock and Bernard Tomic, who teamed up for a 3-6, 7-5, 10-7 victory over wild cards Andre Begemann and Leander Paes.

In his first singles match since the US Open semi-finals, Kei Nishikori withstood an impressive performance by Donald Young to prevail 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the first round of the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2016 on Monday.

The 26-year-old Nishikori is looking to win this ATP World Tour 500 hard-court tournament in Tokyo for the third time this week, following victories in 2012 and 2014, defeating Milos Raonic both times. A good run for the right-hander would also stand him in good stead in the Emirates ATP Race To London. Nishikori is currently fifth in the year-to-date standings, with the Top 8 at the end of the regular season qualifying for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

There was almost a significant setback for Nishikori, though, as Young, a late substitution for an ailing Nicolas Almagro, came close to pulling off an upset against the top seed. The American left-hander played an assertive brand of baseline tennis, not unlike that of his opponent. Using his whippy forehand to good effect, Young saved two break points at 4-4, then shocked the partisan crowd by breaking through on the final point of the opening set.

“I wasn’t hitting enough topspin, and he was playing well. He was in the mood to attack and to come in, and he made all his shots,” Nishikori said. “It’s been a while since I played singles, so I needed some time to get back into the rhythm.”

Despite the setback, Nishikori did not flinch. He showed his mental strength and raced to a 5-1 lead in the second set by playing fearless attacking tennis. With the match level, Nishikori did not let up. The Japanese superstar did not face a break point in the deciding set and served out the match at love to improve to 18-6 in Tokyo.

“He slowed down a little bit and I started to step in and to use my forehand more. I played good tennis in the last two sets,” Nishikori said.

Awaiting Nishikori in the second round is Joao Sousa, who also prevailed against a tricky left-hander after dropping the first set. The Portuguese No. 1 won 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 against Slovakian Martin Klizan. The two players will be meeting for the first time at tour-level.

A runner-up showing at the China Open six years could be David Ferrer’s lucky omen this week as the Spaniard seeks to reach his first ATP World Tour final of 2016. On Monday, he made the first step towards doing so with a 6-4, 7-6(3) victory over Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas.

The fifth seed, having slipped to No. 13 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, extended his FedEx ATP Head2Head record against the Uruguayan to 4-0 in what was the pair’s first clash on hard court. In a match, which featured only one break point between the two, it was Ferrer who made the most of his sole opportunity. 

He broke to take the opening set and secured the result on his second match point in the tie-break against an opponent with two ATP World Tour titles and two runner-up appearances to his name in 2016.

A four-time ATP World Tour semi-finalist this season, Ferrer has had solid runs in Beijing before, finishing runner-up in 2010 and reaching the semi-finals last year – both times losing in straight sets to Novak Djokovic. He next meets either Italian Fabio Fognini or Serbian Viktor Troicki.

Fourth seed Marin Cilic’s Rakuten Japan Open Championships 2016 campaign is off on the right foot after downing last year’s finalist Benoit Paire on Monday. Cilic raced through the opening set in only 20 minutes, but the Frenchman rebounded strongly before succumbing 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 in one hour and 49 minutes. 

Cilic reached the quarter-finals in Tokyo last season before falling to home favourite Kei Nishikori. He will bid to reach his ninth ATP World Tour quarter-final of the season when he next faces either Japan’s Go Soeda or Spain’s Fernando Verdasco.

Paire, who defeated Nick Kyrgios and Nishikori en route to last year’s final, slipped to 1-2 in his FedEx ATP Head2Head series with Cilic, whose superior firepower proved telling on Monday. The Croatian blasted 12 aces and only dropped serve once.

Meanwhile, Paire often found himself under pressure on his delivery. He landed just 45 per cent of first serves and was broken four times. The Frenchman had a final chance to extend the match late in the third set, but netted an aggressive backhand return at 2-4, 30/40 to concede the double break.