World No. 1 Novak Djokovic won a three set third round match to set up a quarterfinals encounter with David Ferrer at the Shanghai Rolex Masters in China on Thursday.

Former NBA player Yao Ming was at hand to perform a coin toss at the start of the opening matches where top seeded Djokovic survived a three set battle against Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan to advance to the quarters 6-3 4-6 6-4.

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The 27-year-old Serb broke the Kazakh late in the third set to finally end the match and set up a battle against Ferrer who came back from behind to beat Andy Murray 2-6 6-1 6-2 in a rematch of the tournament's 2011 finals.

Britain's No. 1 Murray easily took the first set and looked like he was in control of the match but the Spaniard bounced back to break the Brit twice in the second set to setup a deciding third set.

Ferrer, 32, quickly worked his way to a 5-2 lead in the deciding set and once Murray returned the ball straight into the net, he raised his arms in jubilation.

"I needed to play my best tennis today," Ferrer said. " I think this match was very important for both players. Today was a good victory."

"I couldn't find a way around him," Murray said. "He played just great tennis, especially the last set and a half."

With the win, Ferrer moves past Murray in the race to London and is knocking at the doors behind eighth placer Milos Raonic who is just 35 points ahead of him.

But Murray still has a chance to qualify in the eight-man short list for the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals if he performs well in the remaining ATP events particularly the last Masters 1000 tournament, the BNP Paribas Masters to be held in Paris late this month prior to the prestigious showdown.

TagsNovak Djokovic, David Ferrer, andy murray, Yao Ming, Milos Raonic