BIG guns past and present are through to the quarter finals in the bottom half of the ATP Barcelona Open fantasy tennis tournament draw after day four of competition. Top three players, Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem both won through to the last eight with straight sets wins, while former top 10 players, Andy Murray and Kei Nishikori joined them in the quarter finals.

In the match of the day, it was Nishikori who took all three sets to book a quarter finals spot courtesy of a 6-2 2-6 6-2 victory over 12th seed Russian, Karen Khachanov. The match lasted more than two hours with the former top five talent ensuring his second tournament back from injury landed him in a quarter final. He now takes on third seed Thiem though, after the Austrian took out 14th seed Swiss star, Stan Wawrinka in straight sets, 6-4 6-4.

In the other quarter final, Nadal unsurprisingly advanced with a regulation 6-3 6-3 win over compatriot, Pablo Carreno Busta. His opponent in the last eight will be returning British wildcard, Andy Murray who knocked off clay court specialist, Casper Ruud in straight sets. In what was predicted to be the match of the day, it was Murray who got out of it fairly comprehensively, winning 6-4 6-2 in an hour and 39 minutes to set up a date with the tournament favourite in the quarter finals.

Tomorrow’s action sees the quarter finalists to be finalised as world number one Novak Djokovic takes on unseeded Casper Ruud. In other matches, sixth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas faces Grigor Dimitrov, 11th seed Diego Schwartzman goes head-to-head with seventh seed Fabio Fognini and 13th seed Andrey Rublev locks horns with unseeded Italian, Fabio Fognini.

ROUND OF 16 RESULTS:

[2] Rafael Nadal (ESP) defeated Pablo Carreno Busta (ESP) 6-3 6-3
[3] Dominic Thiem (AUT) defeated [14] Stan Wawrinka (SUI) 6-4 6-4
Kei Nishikori (JPN) defeated [12] Karen Khachanov (RUS) 6-2 2-6 6-2
[WC] Andy Murray (GBR) defeated Casper Ruud (NOR) 6-4 6-2