Tennis: Roger Federer on the march at Montreal Masters, wild card Denis Shapovalov's improbable run

Montreal (AFP) - Swiss star Roger Federer outclassed Roberto Bautista Agut as he inched closer to his sixth title of the season in a 6-4, 6-4 win in the quarter-finals of the Montreal Masters on Friday.

Federer hammered five aces, made just two double-faults and won 81 per cent of his first serve points in the 68-minute centre-court match.

"It pays off playing aggressively here in Montreal, plus I feel comfortable at net, so why not spend some time there instead of slugging it out from the baseline," Federer said.

"I think I did a good job again, even though it was tough to control the ball. I got some decent rhythm going."

Federer advances to the semi-finals where he will face Robin Haase of the Netherlands, who defeated Diego Schwartzman 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 earlier in the day.

Bautista Agut struggled on his serve as he was broken three times and won just 65 per cent of his first serve points.

"Today, I felt that I didn't get into the rhythm of the match and I didn't feel the ball well," he said.

"Roger plays very fast and he didn't want to rally with me, so he went for his shots."

Federer posted his seventh consecutive win over the Spaniard and boosted his season record to 34-2.

He has a Tour-high five titles in 2017 and will face Dutchman Haas in just the second career meeting between the two.

The pair met in a Davis Cup World Group play-off in 2012 with Federer winning 6-1, 6-4, 6-4.

Federer's chances of winning another title of the season were given a boost when top seed Rafael Nadal was upset by world No. 143 Denis Shapovalov of Canada on Thursday night.

Shapovalov, who needed a wild card to gain entry into the tournament, continued his cinderella run Friday by rallying to beat Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the quarter-finals.

Mannarino became the fourth established ATP player this week to fall at the hands of the 18-year-old left-handed Canadian.

Shapovalov's win over Mannarino came just 24 hours after he defeated 10-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal to get into the quarters.

Shapovalov also upset former 2009 US Open winner Juan Martin del Potro in the second round.

He started slowly by dropping the first set before settling into the match in the second. After a rain delay, Shapovalov broke Mannarino to take a 4-2 lead in the second set, before serving out the set in the ninth game.

"It's tough to come out and serve after a 12-minute rain delay. I knew that was a very big turning point," Shapovalov said.

"When I broke him, I got that little bit of confidence, and I started believing in my shots again."

Haase rallied after losing the opening set to improve to a 5-0 all-time win record against Schwartzman.

The world No. 52 has had to overcome several injuries in his career, but says he is finally in a good place.

"I wasn't the player I was before my injury," Haase said. "I was not as fast. I was insecure. I had a lot of problems with other injuries after. Then this kind of eats you up inside mentally. It drains you because you know you can do better.

"I've been working on it a lot in the past few years. I started to believe more and more again. My game is better."

Fourth-seeded Alexander Zverev defeated South Africa's Kevin Anderson in straight sets 7-5, 6-4 to set up a semi-final clash of rising stars with Shapovalov.

Zverev, 20, is the youngest player ranked in the top 20 in the world and Shapovalov is the youngest since 1990 to reach a Masters 1000 quarter-final.