Rafael Nadal's strokes are always accompanied by lots of grunting, so the French Open must be more difficult than his results make it look.
Still unbeaten at Roland Garros, Nadal completed the men's quarter-final field on Monday by sweeping Lleyton Hewitt 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 (5).
The two-time defending champion is 18-0 lifetime at the French Open, which seems to be getting easier for him -- for the first time, he reached the final eight without losing a set.
PHOTO: AFP
"I played my best match of the tournament," Nadal said. "Lleyton is always a very good test and a very tough match, because he is a winner. I'm happy with my game today."
A potential showdown looms on Sunday between the second-seeded Nadal and top-ranked Roger Federer, who is seeking his first French Open title to complete a career Grand Slam.
Nadal's opponent today will be fellow Spaniard Carlos Moya, the 1998 champion.
"I prefer to lose against him than against any other player because he is a great friend," Nadal said. "He did a lot of things for me when I arrived on the men's circuit."
Moya declined to take credit for Nadal's dominance.
"I don't think he learned anything from me," Moya said. "And if he did, he did it much better than me."
The other quarterfinal today will be between No. 125 Igor Andreev and No. 6 Novak Djokovic.
Andreev, who eliminated No. 3 Andy Roddick in the opening round, advanced to his first major quarterfinal by rallying past No. 16 Marcos Baghdatis 2-6, 6-1, 6-3, 6-4. Djokovic swept unseeded Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (1) to reach the final eight for the second consecutive year.
"Last year, I honestly didn't expect to be in the quarterfinals," the 20-year-old Djokovic said. "I was pretty much satisfied with my achievement. This year is much different."
The marquee pairing in the women's quarterfinals yesterday was to feature two-time defending champion Justine Henin against eight-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams. It's a rematch of their contentious 2003 semifinal at Roland Garros.
Hewitt had beaten Nadal in four of their six previous meetings, but on clay the matchup of baseliners was a mismatch from the outset. Nadal won 16 of the first 20 points.
"He just hits the ball so much differently to anyone out there," Hewitt said.
Hewitt, No. 14, led for most of the third set and held advantages of 4-2 and 5-4 in the tiebreaker.
But he blew an easy forehand to make it 5-all, then put another easy forehand into the net on the final point.
Nadal displayed racket wizardry even between points, when he drew applause for an over-the-shoulder catch on the strings of a ball lobbed from the other end of the court. He's bidding to become the first man to win a third consecutive French Open title since Bjorn Borg was champion in 1978-81.
Moya overcame his relative lack of experience to beat Jonas Bjorkman.
A Roland Garros perennial, Moya was nonetheless the younger player on Monday and he swept past the 35-year-old Bjorkman 7-6 (5), 6-2, 7-5.
Wearing a sleeveless shirt and his cap backward, the 30-year-old Moya didn't look like an old-timer. But he became the oldest man to reach the final eight at the French Open since Andre Agassi in 2003.
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