Rafael Nadal has tied Andre Agassi for sixth place on the list of Open Era wins by reaching the Shanghai Masters semi-finals.
Beating Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov of 6-4 6-7 (4-7) 6-3 on Friday was his 870th match win. Nadal also improved his win streak to 15 having taken out last week's China Open. In Beijing, he defeated Dimitrov in a three-set semi-final.
Nadal is yet to drop serve in Shanghai.
Dimitrov extended the quarter-final to a third set when he rebounded from a 4-2 deficit to win the second-set tiebreaker.
In the third set, Nadal saved the one break point he faced in the match in the fifth game, and broke serve in the sixth to set up victory.
"Winning a lot of matches in a row, so I'm very happy for everything," Nadal said. "Of course, being able to win the US Open, Beijing and being in the semi-finals here ... I have to try to keep focus and hold that momentum. We'll see tomorrow if I can have another good day."
Fourth-seeded Marin Cilic stands between Nadal and a second ATP final in two weeks.
Cilic advanced to his first Shanghai semi-final by beating Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain 6-3 6-4.
The 25th-ranked Ramos-Vinolas ended Cilic's streak of winning 21 service games in the sixth game of the second set.
"I was a little bit angry with myself just with not keeping up the good tennis at that moment," Cilic said.
Sixteenth seed Juan Martin del Potro recovered after dropping the first set to beat Viktor Troicki 4-6 6-1 6-4. He will face the winner of Roger Federer and Richard Gasquet.
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