Rafael Nadal continued his career-long dominance of Fernando Verdasco, dismissing his fellow Spaniard 6-3 7-5 to power into the round of 16 at the Indian Wells ATP Masters event.

The straightforward win in 79 minutes put Nadal into a potential clash with Roger Federer – but the Swiss still has to do his part by beating American Steve Johnson.

Federer and Nadal have squared off 35 times, most recently in January’s final of the Australian Open, where the Swiss legend prevailed in an epic five-set match to claim his 18th grand slam title.

Three-time Indian Wells champion Nadal improved to 16-3 against Verdasco, who committed seven costly double-faults, and has now not beaten Nadal for five years.

“I played a solid match, I was very aggressive with my serve,” Nadal said.

“I played much better than the first day. I played two horrible games, but the rest of the match, I played very well.”

Earlier in the day, Japanese fourth seed Kei Nishikori advanced past Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 6-2 6-2 while there were mixed results for the Americans on court.

Donald Young upset French 14th seed Lucas Pouille 6-4 1-6 6-3 but Taylor Fritz was knocked out of the tournament by Tunisian Malek Jaziri 6-4 3-6 6-3.