Rafael Nadal of Spain hits a shot during his match against Jurgen Melzer of Austria at the Shanghai Masters tennis tournament Oct 14, 2010. [Photo/Agencies]

Defeat by Melzer is ninth loss for the top-ranked Spanish ace

SHANGHAI - World No 1 Rafael Nadal was on Thursday dumped out of the $3.24 million Shanghai Rolex Masters in the third round by Austrian 13th seed Jurgen Melzer.

It was only the ninth defeat of the season for the Spaniard, who came into this tournament on the heels of victory in the Japan Open last week.

It was also the first time since the 2009 French Open that he has failed to progress further than the third round. In the 21 tournaments since then, Nadal has reached at least the quarterfinal stage.

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Despite never having taken a set off Nadal in their three previous encounters, Melzer stormed the first set here, winning 6-1.

Nadal claimed the second 6-3, but the Austrian, ranked 12th in the world rankings, took the third, decisive set 6-3 to set up a quarterfinal against either Juan Monaco or Mischa Zverev.

In Thursday's other matches, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray both eased into the quarterfinals of the Shanghai Masters with straight-set victories .

Djokovic, who is aiming to win back-to-back titles after capturing the China Open in Beijing last week, defeated Frenchman Richard Gasquet 6-1, 6-1.

Gasquet looked drained after winning two matches due to the rain-delayed schedule earlier in the week. He dropped serve five times and had only six winners, compared to 25 for the second-ranked Serb.

"I don't know how (Gasquet) felt and I didn't care," Djokovic said. "I did really well from the start. I put pressure on him and I was aggressive. I didn't give him a chance to come back into the match."

Djokovic next faces Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, who upset Wimbledon finalist and seventh-seeded Tomas Berdych 7-6 (4), 6-3. Garcia-Lopez advanced Wednesday when Andy Roddick retired with a groin injury while leading 6-3, 2-3.

Murray beat qualifier Jeremy Chardy of France 6-3, 6-4 to reach his ninth quarterfinal this year.

AFP - AP