In a prelude to this month's Davis Cup final, Andy Murray routed David Goffin 6-1, 6-0 on Thursday to reach the quarterfinals at the Paris Masters.
Murray lost only eight points on his serve and broke the 16th-seeded Belgian five times. Murray and Goffin are expected to face each other again in the Davis Cup final between Britain and Belgium in Gent from Nov. 27-29.
Thursday's match was played on an indoor hard court, but the host Belgians opted to play on clay in the Davis Cup.
The second-seeded Murray will next face Richard Gasquet of France, who advanced when Kei Nishikori of Japan retired while trailing 7-6 (3), 4-1.
Meanwhile, Djokovic booked his spot in the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 7-5 win over 14th-seeded Gilles Simon that extended the Serb's unbeaten streak to 19 matches and 26 sets in a row.
Eariler, Roger Federer raced into the third round of the Paris Masters with an exhilarating display of attacking tennis on Wednesday, thrashing Italian Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-1, 6-1 in just 47 minutes.
Fresh from his victory at the Swiss Indoors last weekend, the 17-time Grand Slam champion looked in ominous form on the indoor hard court, winning 92 percent of points on his first serve as he breezed through the first set in 19 minutes.
Seppi had a glimpse of a chance, but failed to convert four break points on Federer's opening service game of the second set. From then on, it was one way show as Federer cruised to victory.
Earlier, Nadal defeated Czech qualifier lukas Rosol 6-2, 6-2.
Nadal broke Rosol in the second game and held for 3-0 after saving a break point.
He clinched the first set when Rosol's wild, two-handed backhand sailed wide, and then earned the victory on his second match point when Rosol's forehand went wide.
Meanwhile, Rohan Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea scraped past Colombian duo of Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah in a tough three setter to reach the men's doubles quarterfinals of the Paris Masters here on Thursday.
Bopanna and Mergea rallied from a set down to beat the Colombian pair 6-7(3), 6-4, 10-5 in a second round match that lasted an hour and 33 minutes.
Williams advances to semis
ZHUHAI: Top-seeded Venus Williams rallied to beat Saisai Zheng of China, 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 and advance to the semifinals of the WTA Elite Trophy on Thursday.
Williams hit six aces and saved two of four break points to beat Zheng, who was granted a wild-card berth. "You could see that she played amazing and she really is a future champion," Williams said of Zheng.