Rafael Nadal’s serene progress on clay continued with another straight-sets victory, beating compatriot Guillermo Garcia-Lopez to reach the Barcelona Open last eight.
The brilliant Spaniard is chasing an 11th title at the event and after dispatching Roberto Carballes Baena on Thursday, he was in similarly ruthless form to beat Garcia-Lopez 6-1 6-3.
It’s another straight sets victory for Nadal, whose run of consecutive sets on the red dirt now stands at 40 and stretches back to the start of last season’s French Open
Having lost only three times in his career in Barcelona he will face world No 140 and Novak Djokovic’s conquerer Martin Klizan in the quarter-final after the Slovakian beat Feliciano Lopez.
Klizan won the last time the pair met in Beijing four years and also took a set off Nadal when they met on clay at the French Open in 2014, but the 16-time Grand Slam champion is in relentless form on the surface he loves most of all.
Nadal claimed his 11th Monte Carlo crown on Sunday to retain his status as world No 1, and he must win the title in Barcelona if he is keep hold of top spot and he never looked troubled by Garcia-Lopez.
Nadal has only ever lost three times in Barcelona, and has now won 38 consecutive sets on clay and once he’d warmed to his task here, he proved too strong for his impressive Spanish compatriot.
Earlier in the day second and third seeds Grigor DImitrov and Dominic Thiem also advanced to the last eight.
Thiem, who was hammered by Nadal in the Monte Carlo quarter-finals last week, had little trouble in beating Slovakian lucky loser Jozef Kovalik 7-6 6-2 and he will face Stefanos Tsitsipas for a place in the last four after the Greek teenager ousted 10th’s seed Albert Ramos-Vonolas.
Dimitrov was forced to work harder, saving a couple of match points on his way to a 7-5 3-6 7-6 victory over Malek Jaziri that sets up a quarter-final meeting with Pablo Carreno Busta who was a three-set winner over Adrian Mannarino.
Fourth seed David Goffin battled back from a set down against Karen Khachanov to reach the last eight and the fourth seed will face eighth seed Roberto Bautista Agut who dropped just four games in his victory over Pablo Andujar.
