Nadal, Zhang crash out on day 7 of China Open action

It was not a day that pleased fans on the 7th day of China Open action here on Friday, with crowd favorites on the WTA and ATP sides falling to agile opponents in the quarterfinals.

Chinese number one Zhang Shuai fell to nemesis Johanna Konta of Britain 6-4, 6-0.

It's Zhang's third consecutive loss of the season against Konta, who also defeated the Chinese player at the Australian Open and the just-completed Wuhan Open last week.

The quarterfinal match saw a roller coaster performance from Zhang, who stormed to 4-0 in the opening set in just 15 minutes but dropped 12 games in a row to concede the shock defeat.

The 27-year-old Zhang had two breaks comfortably in the first set, but suddenly lost steam in the remaining time, allowing Konta to have the game in control.

Zhang said Konta stepped it up after the fourth game.

"Starting from the fourth game, Konta played very well in terms of her return and serves. At 4-All I felt my first serve was not very good. When I played her, I felt it wasn't going my way. I could not play at my level today. She put a lot of pressure on me," she said.

But Zhang is determined to move forward, and said she wants to meet more top players on the court to continue improving.

"As for the future, I will try my best to go in the right direction. I would like to play more top players. By playing them, I can improve more quickly," she said.

Konta goes on to meet 8th-seed Madison Keys of the United States in the semis, who squeaked out a revenge victory over the Czech player who beat her in their bronze-medal match in Rio, No. 14 Petra Kvitova.

In a two-hour 40 minutes marathon match that went to three sets and included two tiebreaks, Keys took the match 6-3, 6-7(2), 7-6(5).

Keys' victory ends Kvitova's 8-game unbeaten run.

Keys seemed pleased with her performance in the first set, but said it could have turned out differently.

"I think I played a pretty solid first set today, then she raised her level. I just think at the end it became a couple of points here or there. I think I got my serve back on track a little bit," Keys said.

"I mean, really, it could have gone either way. It was really close," she added.

Turning over to the men's side, No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal, another favorite of the spectators in the Diamond Court, was stunned by Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 6-2, 6-4.

It is the first time Dimitrov has ever bested Nadal over the course of 8 meetings.

The pair were quite well-matched in the first set.

Dimirtov broke Nadal three times in the opening game, before Nadal was able to answer back to level it 40-all.

That did not stop Dimitrov from taking first point before Nadal was able to level it 1-all early in the first set.

Dimitrov took the third game in unceremonious form, breaking Nadal with his snappy backhand delivered at the baseline. That did not last long, as Nadal's solid returns brought it back to 2-all.

Two double-faults from Nadal allowed Dimitrov to storm to a 6-2 win to seal out the first set.

Dimitrov broke Nadal twice to open up the second set, and stormed to a 3-1 lead before Nadal's serves finally started to break through.

Dimitrov remained steady, however, and another point from Nadal was unable to stop him from taking the second set 6-4.

The Bulgarian goes on to meet 3rd-seed Milos Raonic in the semifinals, who beat Pablo Carrerno Busta 6-4, 6-4 in their quarterfinal match this evening.

World No. 2 Andy Murray is also through to the semifinals, winning an all-British clash against Kyle Edmund. The top seed overcame strong resistance from his compatriot in the first set before claiming the 7-6(9), 6-2 victory.

Murray said he felt good about his serve during the match.

"Both of us got quite a lot of free points on the serve in the first set. Yeah, I served well. It was the best I served in the three matches that I played here so far. Yeah, got a lot of success with that. Yeah, I didn't lose a point behind my first serve in the first set, so that was very positive," he said.

Murray goes onto meet David Ferrer of Spain, who took out Alexander Zverev of Germany 6-7(4), 6-1, 7-5. Endit