Federer, Nadal roll into Monte-Carlo quarters

Apr 19, 2007, 23:39 GMT

Monte-Carlo, Monaco - The world's top-two stars -- Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal -- highlighted Thursday's third-round winners at the Masters Series Monte-Carlo.

Federer, last year's runner-up here to Nadal, beat Korean Hyung-Taik Lee 6-4, 6-3, while Nadal extended his Open Era clay-court winning streak to 64 matches with a 6-1, 6-1 pasting of Belgian Kristof Vliegen. Nadal won 21 straight points at one point in his lopsided victory, while Federer erased Lee in 65 minutes for his 499th career ATP match win.

Nadal is the reigning two-time Monte-Carlo and French Open champion, having beaten the 10-time Grand Slam titlist Federer in last year's finales here and at Roland Garros. The Spanish star hasn't lost on red clay since Russian Igor Andreev topped him in Valencia two years ago.

The reigning Australian Open, Wimbledon, U.S. Open and Masters Cup champion Federer's quarterfinal opponent here on Friday will be 12th-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer, while Nadal will encounter German Philipp Kohlschreiber. The great Federer is 5-0 lifetime against Ferrer and has never dropped a set against the gritty Spaniard.

A trio of Day-5 upsets came when 10th-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych drove out fifth-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo 1-6, 6-3, 6-2, Ferrer toppled sixth-seeded Serbian Novak Djokovic 7-5, 6-4 and 11th-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet grounded seventh-seeded Croat Ivan Ljubicic 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 7-5. Djokovic had won seven straight and 12 of his last 13 matches heading into his clash with Ferrer. The rising Serb titled at the Miami Masters three weeks ago and posted a runner-up finish to Nadal at the recent Masters Series event at Indian Wells.

Former world No. 1 Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero moved on by pasting the aforementioned Andreev 6-3, 6-3 on the dirt at the famed Monte-Carlo Country Club. The 16th-seeded Ferrero titled here back-to-back in 2002 and 2003.

In other third-round action, Swede Robin Soderling subdued Belarusian Max Mirnyi 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 and the qualifier Kohlschreiber overcame Spanish lucky- loser Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 5-7, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-4).

Friday's other quarters will pit Berdych against Soderling and Gasquet versus Ferrero.

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