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Mathieu injury gives Rafael Nadal easy ride

Spanish second seed Rafael Nadal joined Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Jarkko Nieminen and Mikhail Youzhny in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open after spending only 50 minutes on court yesterday.

Nadal was given an armchair ride into the last eight when his French opponent Paul-Henri Mathieu withdrew with a left calf injury.

The triple French Open champion was leading 6-4, 3-0 at the time of the pull-out and said he was playing the best tennis of his four matches at the tournament so far.

He will now face Finnish 24th seed Nieminen in the quarter-finals.

Nadal had been in control of his evening center court match and had wrapped up the opening set after a service break in the third game.

"I was enjoying the match," Nadal said. "I was playing my best tennis since arriving in Australia. I'm happy to be in the quarter-final, but not like this way."

The Spaniard, who has advanced to the quarter-finals without dropping a set, is bidding to match his best Australian Open result which he set last year when he reached the last eight for the first time.

Tsonga cut down his second top ranked opponent of the tournament with a 6-2, 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (8/6), 6-3 win over eighth seed Richard Gasquet in their all-French tie.

The 38th-ranked Tsonga, who sent ninth seeded Scotsman Andy Murray packing on the opening day, now faces 14th seed Youzhny, who won an all-Russian clash with fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko.

Youzhny, the No. 2 ranked Russian behind Davydenko at 14, marched on with a 7-6 (7/2), 6-3, 6-1 win.

Nieminen, the winner of the leadup Adelaide ATP tournament, finished too strong for German Philipp Kohlschreiber, who dumped Andy Roddick out in the previous round.

Nieminen worked his way through to a 3-6, 7-6 (9/7), 7-6 (11/9), 6-3 victory.

In two third round matches carried over from Saturday, Juan Carlos Ferrero ended Argentine David Nalbandian's tournament with a surprisingly comfortable 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 win in one hour 44 minutes.

Fifth seed David Ferrer took three minutes longer to oust American Vincent Spadea, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2.

Australia's Lleyton Hewitt and Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis didn't begin their third round match on center court until just before midnight on Saturday and it finally ended at 4.33am yesterday, the latest finish in Grand Slam history.

Hewitt prevailed 4-6, 7-5, 7-5, 6-7 (4/7), 6-3 in a four hours 45 minutes epic.
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