SHANGHAI (AFP) - Rafael Nadal underlined his status as tennis' world No. 1 and the man to beat at the Shanghai Masters, as he powered into the quarter-finals at the expense of Fabio Fognini on Thursday.

The 31-year-old Spaniard was comfortable in seeing off the 28th-ranked Italian 6-3, 6-1 and will play sixth seed Grigor Dimitrov in the last eight.

Top seed Nadal is chasing a seventh title this season, but a career-first Shanghai Masters.

His great rival, second seed Roger Federer and the 2014 champion here, dismissed Ukrainian qualifier Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-4, 6-2 in 61 minutes.