diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/shuffle/hash/HashShuffleReader.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/shuffle/hash/HashShuffleReader.scala
index e32ad9c036ad4..7c9dc8e5f88ef 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/shuffle/hash/HashShuffleReader.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/shuffle/hash/HashShuffleReader.scala
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ package org.apache.spark.shuffle.hash
 import org.apache.spark.{InterruptibleIterator, TaskContext}
 import org.apache.spark.serializer.Serializer
 import org.apache.spark.shuffle.{BaseShuffleHandle, ShuffleReader}
+import org.apache.spark.util.collection.ExternalSorter
 
 private[spark] class HashShuffleReader[K, C](
     handle: BaseShuffleHandle[K, _, C],
@@ -35,8 +36,8 @@ private[spark] class HashShuffleReader[K, C](
 
   /** Read the combined key-values for this reduce task */
   override def read(): Iterator[Product2[K, C]] = {
-    val iter = BlockStoreShuffleFetcher.fetch(handle.shuffleId, startPartition, context,
-      Serializer.getSerializer(dep.serializer))
+    val ser = Serializer.getSerializer(dep.serializer)
+    val iter = BlockStoreShuffleFetcher.fetch(handle.shuffleId, startPartition, context, ser)
 
     val aggregatedIter: Iterator[Product2[K, C]] = if (dep.aggregator.isDefined) {
       if (dep.mapSideCombine) {
@@ -54,16 +55,13 @@ private[spark] class HashShuffleReader[K, C](
     // Sort the output if there is a sort ordering defined.
     dep.keyOrdering match {
       case Some(keyOrd: Ordering[K]) =>
-        // Define a Comparator for the whole record based on the key Ordering.
-        val cmp = new Ordering[Product2[K, C]] {
-          override def compare(o1: Product2[K, C], o2: Product2[K, C]): Int = {
-            keyOrd.compare(o1._1, o2._1)
-          }
-        }
-        val sortBuffer: Array[Product2[K, C]] = aggregatedIter.toArray
-        // TODO: do external sort.
-        scala.util.Sorting.quickSort(sortBuffer)(cmp)
-        sortBuffer.iterator
+        // Create an ExternalSorter to sort the data. Note that if spark.shuffle.spill is disabled,
+        // the ExternalSorter won't spill to disk.
+        val sorter = new ExternalSorter[K, C, C](ordering = Some(keyOrd), serializer = Some(ser))
+        sorter.write(aggregatedIter)
+        context.taskMetrics.memoryBytesSpilled += sorter.memoryBytesSpilled
+        context.taskMetrics.diskBytesSpilled += sorter.diskBytesSpilled
+        sorter.iterator
       case None =>
         aggregatedIter
     }
diff --git a/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/util/collection/ExternalSorterSuite.scala b/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/util/collection/ExternalSorterSuite.scala
index ddb5df40360e9..65a71e5a83698 100644
--- a/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/util/collection/ExternalSorterSuite.scala
+++ b/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/util/collection/ExternalSorterSuite.scala
@@ -190,6 +190,11 @@ class ExternalSorterSuite extends FunSuite with LocalSparkContext {
         fail(s"Value 2 for ${i} was wrong: expected ${expected}, got ${seq2.toSet}")
       }
     }
+
+    // sortByKey - should spill ~17 times
+    val rddE = sc.parallelize(0 until 100000).map(i => (i/4, i))
+    val resultE = rddE.sortByKey().collect().toSeq
+    assert(resultE === (0 until 100000).map(i => (i/4, i)).toSeq)
   }
 
   test("spilling in local cluster with many reduce tasks") {
@@ -256,6 +261,11 @@ class ExternalSorterSuite extends FunSuite with LocalSparkContext {
         fail(s"Value 2 for ${i} was wrong: expected ${expected}, got ${seq2.toSet}")
       }
     }
+
+    // sortByKey - should spill ~8 times per executor
+    val rddE = sc.parallelize(0 until 100000).map(i => (i/4, i))
+    val resultE = rddE.sortByKey().collect().toSeq
+    assert(resultE === (0 until 100000).map(i => (i/4, i)).toSeq)
   }
 
   test("cleanup of intermediate files in sorter") {