• Monte Carlo Masters

Nadal and Federer into Monte Carlo quarters

Rafael Nadal was unbeaten on clay last season © Getty Images

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Monte Carlo Masters seedings

World No. 1 Rafael Nadal remained on course for a record seventh straight Monte Carlo Masters title after booking his place in the quarter-finals with a straight-sets victory over Richard Gasquet.

Unbeaten on clay last season, the six-time defending champion showed grit and style in equal measure with a 6-2 6-4 victory.

Gasquet had never beaten Nadal in seven previous meetings, and he soon found himself on the back foot after failing to hold his opening service game and Nadal found little resistance as he wrapped up the opening set.

After being comprehensively outplayed in the opening stanza, Gasquet made Nadal work harder in the second, saving two break points to keep things level until the seventh game of the second set. The Frenchman failed to give up even when Nadal broke for a 4-3 lead, digging deep to secure his first break to level the scores once more.

However, another break saw Nadal seize his advantage and, despite a valiant effort from Gasquet, the Spaniard sealed his place in the last eight, where he will meet Ivan Ljubicic, who upset fifth seed Tomas Berdych 6-4 6-2.

Roger Federer has never won the title in Monte Carlo, but the world No. 3 kept himself in the hunt with a 6-4 6-3 victory over Marin Cilic. Novak Djokovic's withdrawal handed Federer the second seeding, meaning he and Nadal on a collision course for the final.

However, the 16-time grand slam champion, who is chasing Nadal's record of 18 Masters titles, was made to dig deep by the Croat. Cilic started strongly but was helpless to prevent Federer snatching a late break in the opening set, and a single break in the second set was enough to claim the victory and set up a quarter-final clash against Jurgen Melzer, who saw off Nicolas Almagro 6-1 6-4.

"I don't know if it's so much to do with matches, it's definitely part of the whole equation, but I guess it takes two, three weeks until I feel really comfortable, but matches kind of accelerate that process," Federer told Sky Sports.

"If you can win many matches early on in the clay court season, you won't ask yourself too many questions, you know what you are doing and its working, results are good and you have reason to believe that you are doing the right things.

"I am happy I have definitely got three matches here in Monaco, I have already had some good practice with a lot of good players this week and I think that is really going to set the tone for me in the next month."

Fourth seed David Ferrer cruised into the quarter-finals with a 6-1 6-3 win over Milos Raonic. The highly-rated Canadian has rocketed from 156th at the beginning to the year to 34th, but he had no answer to Ferrer, who dictated the rallies and pegged Raonic behind the baseline.

Elsewhere, there was disappointment as Gael Monfils slumped to a 7-6(6) 6-2 defeat against qualifier Frederico Gil, while Viktor Troicki was handed something of a reprieve as opponent Tommy Robredo retired while one set up due to an adductor injury.

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