TENNIS in DEPTH.

Roger Federer beat Marin Cilic 6-4 6-3 while fourth seed David Ferrer reached the quarter-finals with a 6-1 6-3 win over Milos Raonic. Nadal’s Spanish compatriot, Tommy Robredo, was leading Viktor Troicki 6-3 1-2 when he was forced to withdraw through injury.

Rafael Nadal extended his unbeaten run at the Monte Carlo Masters to 34 matches as he reached the last eight with a solid win over Richard Gasquet. Nadal was rarely threatened and two breaks in the first set and two in the second gave him a 6-2 6-4 win. He will now play Ivan Ljubicic, who beat fifth seed Tomas Berdych 6-4 6-2.

After breaking in the first game of the match, world number one Nadal found his first service game a tricky affair but after fighting off several deuces he duly held and, even at that early stage, there was only going to be one winner. Gasquet tried to be aggressive and produced some good shots but his opponent was a class apart and a second break at 4-2 helped Nadal take the first set in 44 minutes. The Spaniard dropped only six points on his serve in the opening set and he was equally in control for much of the second.

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