Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Roger Federer reach the Monte-Carlo quarterfinals with straight-set wins on Thursday. Next up for Djokovic is a red-hot Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, who upset Tomas Berdych in three.
Rafael Nadal earned his 300th career match victory on clay by rolling over Andreas Seppi 6-1, 6-3 in the third round of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters on Thursday afternoon. Nadal, seeking his ninth title at the event, converted all five of his break-point chances and needed just one hour and 13 minutes to set up an all-Spanish quarterfinal showdown against David Ferrer.
Nadal interview:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYZeAnngvZI]
Federer made even shorter work of Lukas Rosol as the Swiss raced into the last eight after a mere 57 minutes of his 6-4, 6-1 victory. Like Nadal, Federer was also 100 percent on break-point conversions: four for four.
Federer interview:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=so4cMNAawk4]
A more surprising result saw Casablanca champion Guillermo Garcia-Lopez maintain his fine form with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 upset of Tomas Berdych. The fifth-seeded Czech got off to a hot start but a lower back problem–and too much Garcia-Lopez–contributed to his demise. Next up for Garcia-Lopez is Novak Djokovic, who has lost only two games in two matches this week. The Serb crushed Pablo Carreno Busta 6-0, 6-1 in the third round.
Berdych suffers the consequences of losing:
I lost today = walk home #walker pic.twitter.com/QyNDfDJ1Ah
— Tomáš Berdych (@tomasberdych) April 17, 2014
In the day’s only other three-setter, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga saved six break points in his second set against Fabio Fognini to prevent going down a set and a break. Having squandered an opportunity to seize full control, Fognini completely collapsed. In fact, Tsonga won the last nine games of the match to prevail 5-7, 6-3, 6-0 and book his quarterfinal spot alongside Federer.
Stanislas Wawrinka checked out Tsonga-Fognini on television before his match….
Watching @tsonga7 vs @fabiofogna before my match ...! pic.twitter.com/PCZwQ8sneb
— Stanislas Wawrinka (@stanwawrinka) April 17, 2014
….But it was a match that never happened. Nicolas Almagro withdrew due to a foot injury, giving Wawrinka a walkover into the quarters.
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