By Chris Oddo | Thursday, October 9, 2014

Novak Djokovic won his 27th consecutive match in China on Thursday, but he was made to work hard by Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin before closing out the 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 victory in two hours and six minutes.

More Shanghai: Djokovic Has High Praise for Thiem after Defeating Him

“He came up with some fantastic shots,” said Djokovic of Kukushkin. “He deserves a lot of credit for playing this way.”

Djokovic, facing Kukushkin for the first time, managed a late break in the first set to grab a 5-3 lead and closed the opener on serve in the next game.

But in the second set, the Kazakh broke immediately, and when Djokovic broke back to get on serve at 5-4, Kukushkin would lace a forehand down the line winner to break back in the next game and force the decider.

Djokovic, who leads all ATP players with five titles, steadied himself in the decider, and despite Kukushkin’s best efforts, he nosed ahead by breaking in the fifth game and did not face a break point the rest of the way, closing out his 51st victory of the season and setting up a quarterfinal battle with David Ferrer.

“I fought my way through,” said Djokovic, “I didn’t play as well as I played in some other matches so far in this tournament and Beijing, but it’s important that I got the W.”

Djokovic will face a hungry opponent in Friday’s quarterfinals, as David Ferrer has his sights set on claiming one of the five remaining London bids after defeating Andy Murray in three sets.

Ferrer, a former finalist in Shanghai, improved his career record to 6-7 against Murray with his victory. Thanks to the triumph, Ferrer leapfrogged Murray in the race to London and he now stands just 35 points behind Milos Raonic for the 8th slot.

After dropping the opener, Ferrer lost only three more games, finishing off the 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory by losing only five first serve points in the final two sets.

Elsewhere in Shanghai, Feliciano Lopez reached his third Masters quarterfinal of the season with a straight-sets win over John Isner, 6-3, 6-4, while Julien Benneteau set up a quarterfinal encounter with Roger Federer with a 6-3, 6-4 win over American Jack Sock.

Gilles Simon, Mikhail Youznhy, and Tomas Berdych were also winners.