Nadal reaches Swiss Indoors quarters

Rafael Nadal continued his comeback from injury with a 6-1 6-1 win against unheralded Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert to reach the Swiss Indoors quarter-finals.

The second-seeded Spaniard, playing just his third tournament since Wimbledon due to a wrist injury, blasted past Herbert in 57 minutes on Wednesday, breaking the qualifier’s serve five times.

Nadal, who struggled with appendicitis earlier this month in Shanghai, was never troubled by the 120th-ranked Herbert, who double-faulted 11 times.

Nadal did save two break points, including when he was serving for the match.

He next plays either Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan or 17-year-old Croatian wild card entry Borna Coric on Wednesday.

Belgium’s David Goffin is also through to the quarters after beating Croatia’s Ivan Dodig 7-6 (7-0) 6-4.

He next plays either fourth-seeded Milos Raonic of Canada or Donald Young of the United States.

Coric, ranked 124th, caused a big first-round upset when he beat sixth-seeded Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 7-6 (7-2) 6-3.

Although the 13th-ranked Gulbis, this year’s French Open semi-finalist, had nine aces, he constantly felt the pressure of Coric’s excellent return.

He faced 14 break points in the match, dropping his serve three times.

Golubev won 6-3 6-3 against Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia.

Meanwhile, Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan had 14 aces as he reached the second round with a 6-1 6-1 rout of Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz, a renowned server who managed only two aces and lost his serve five times.

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