Nadal beats Ferrero at Monte Carlo

The match between Nadal & Ferrero showcased all the thrills tha one expects when two clay court maestro clash.

Rafael Nadal withstood fellow Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero’s early fight back to reach the Monte Carlo Masters last eight with a 6-4 6-1 win on Thursday.

Three times champion Nadal, who is defending his title, will next face another compatriot in fifth seed David Ferrer, who swept aside Serb Janko Tipsarevic 6-4 6-0 in the third round. Ferrer has been eliminated at the quarter-final stage on his last four appearances in the principality.

Nadal and Ferrero, with four French Open titles and five Monte Carlo crowns between them, treated the fans to top-notch tennis in the first set before the 13th seed ran out of steam.

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Number two seed Nadal built a 4-1 lead in the first set after an early break only for Ferrero to level at 4-4 with a super forehand winner on his opponent’s serve.

Ferrero, who won the French Open two years before Nadal started his reign on the Roland Garros clay, found some success by changing his tactics, winning 13 points at the net. However, Nadal took the set after 54 minutes on his fourth chance by winning an impressive rally that saw Ferrero retrieve the ball between his legs with his back to the net.

Nadal now had his grip on the match and jumped to a 2-0 lead when he won a 15 minute-long second game on his fifth break point with a service return winner.

Ferrero, who won the Monte Carlo event in 2002 and 2003, managed to pull a break back but by then the Mallorcan had raced to a 4-0 advantage which had almost put the result beyond doubt.

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The Mallorcan sealed the win after one hour and 46 minutes with a backhand winner. Ferrer, who started the day’s play on centre court, wasted little time against Tipsarevic.

Following two early exchanges of breaks, the Spaniard broke decisively in the 10th game to take the first set and never looked back, wrapping up victory in 67 minutes.

Russian Igor Andreev wasted six match points before beating Spaniard Nicolas Almagro 7-5 4-6 6-4 and will play 16th-seeded German Philipp Kohlschreiber or fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko.

World number one and top seed Roger Federer, who had to dig deep to beat Spanish qualifier Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo on Wednesday, was playing France’s Gael Monfils on centre court.