Fresh from a record eighth straight win at last week’s Monte Carlo Masters, Nadal dispatched his 78th-ranked Spanish compatriot in a little over one hour and 20 minutes and will play another Spaniard, Pablo Andujar, or Colombian Robert Farah for a place in Friday’s quarter-finals.
Top seed Nadal, whose victory was his 30th in a row at the clay event in the Catalan capital, told reporters he had felt a slight twinge of pain in his left knee, an injury that forced his withdrawal from last month’s Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, but said it was nothing to worry about.
“It went better than I thought, I played a good match,” the Mallorca native added.
“I made few errors, I felt good on my backhand for virtually the whole time and I was solid across the board.”
Third seed David Ferrer of Spain eased into the third round when he thumped Filip Krajinovic of Serbia 6-0 6-3 to set up a clash with compatriot Albert Montanes, a 6-0 5-7 7-5 victor over Australia’s Bernard Tomic.
Britain’s Andy Murray, the second seed who went through on Tuesday, takes on Santiago Giraldo for a place in the last eight today after the Colombian beat Robin Haase of Netherlands 6-4 6-3.
In Stuttgart, wild-card Mona Barthel was delighted by her shock first-round win over former idol and ex-world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic at Stuttgart’s clay-court WTA tournament yesterday.
The 21-year-old German blasted down 11 aces to outmuscle Serbia’s Ivanovic, ranked 15th in the world, in straight sets for a 7-5, 7-6 (7/4) victory and will now face seventh-seed Marion Bartoli of France in the second round.
“There was something special, because Ana used to be a bit of a role model for me,” said Barthel, ranked 35th in the world.
“I was still at school when she won the (2008) French Open and I watched it on television.
“At that time all this was a long, long way off for me.”
Ivanovic has struggled for form since she rose to world No. 1 nearly four years ago following victory at Roland Garros.
Her best recent form has been at the US Open when she reached the fourth round in both 2010 and 2011.
She started her semifinal against Maria Sharapova at Indian Wells at the start of March, but was forced to retire with a hip injury.
In contrast, Barthel is part of a batch of promising female tennis players emerging from Germany having won the Hobart WTA tournament in January.
She went on to reach the third round at the Australian Open where she lost to eventual winnner Victoria Azarenka, the current world No. 1.
Meanwhile, fourth-seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland booked her place in the quarterfinals when she beat qualifier Greta Arn of Hungary 6-3, 6-4 in their second round match.
Meantime, world No. 1 Novak Djokovic has pulled out of the Serbia Open tennis following the death of his grandfather during the Monte Carlo Masters event last week, the Serbian said yesterday.
“I’ve made a decision not to take part in the tournament this year,” Djokovic, the title holder at the Belgrade claycourt event, said on his website (www.novakdjokovic.com).
“This is certainly one of the toughest decisions in my career but it is impossible for me to play in the next few days and to think about tennis when there are some other things in my head.”
The world No. 1 said he had “no emotional energy left” after being thrashed by Rafael Nadal in the Monte Carlo final on Sunday, and would be back in action at the Madrid Masters, which starts on May 6.
The April 30-May 6 Serbia Open is organized by Djokovic’s uncle Goran.
