Nadal demolishes Berrer to reach last eight

Monte Carlo: World number three Rafa Nadal continued his destruction business at the Monte Carlo Masters with a 6-0, 6-1 demolition of German Michael Berrer to reach the quarter-finals on Thursday.

He will next face either fellow Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero or France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who were due to meet later on a sunsoaked centre court in a potentially explosive third-round match. Nadal dropped only one game in his second-round match against Dutch qualifier Thiemo De Bakker and it long looked like world number 51 Berrer would taste an even heavier defeat. Berrer, a finalist in the Zagreb tournament earlier this year, won only five points in the opening set as Grace Kelly look alikes gathered in the stands on Ladies’ day at the tournament. By the fourth game of the second set, Berrer had doubled his tally, eventually bagging 18 points and triggering wild cheers when he clinched his only game. A forehand winner down the line ended Berrer’s ordeal in a match lasting just 54 minutes and Spanish players enjoyed a fine day on their favourite surface. David Ferrer ruthlessly brought Ivan Ljubicic down to earth with a 6-0 7-6 victory and his compatriots Albert Montanes and Fernando Verdasco also reached the quarter-finals. Ljubicic, who won the Indian Wells Masters last month, could not handle Ferrer’s devastating forehand in a one-sided opening set before improving in the second as the Spaniard started to misfire. Claycourt Machine Ferrer will face Germany’s Philipp Petzschner or Philipp Kohlschreiber for a place in the last four, with a possible match up against claycourt machine Nadal looming. In front of a sparse audience and a few paragliders swirling around the skies with screeching seagulls, the 11th-seeded Ferrer was initially barely bothered by his opponent’s usually lethal first serve. The eighth-seeded Ljubicic must have been giddy from all the chasing around he had to do as his opponent sent him charging round the court but he recovered in the second set. He dropped serve in the third game but Ferrer allowed the Croatian to level at 5-5 with a forehand winner. Ferrer, however, got his act together in the tiebreak, which he clinched 7-4 after Ljubicic netted a crosscourt forehand. Montanes beat Croatian fourth seed Marin Cilic 6-4 6-4 while Verdasco, seeded sixth, recovered from a shaky start to see off Czech Tomas Berdych 5-7 6-3 6-2. Bureau Report