Nadal demolishes Monaco

Paris - Second seed Rafael Nadal won 17 games in succession as he coasted into the French Open quarter-finals on Monday with a 6-2, 6-0, 6-0 demolition of Argentina's Juan Monaco.

The defending champion, bidding to become the first man to capture seven Roland Garros singles titles, will tackle fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro for a place in the semi-finals.

Nadal, who celebrated his 26th birthday on Sunday while title rivals Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer were struggling into the last eight, took his career record in Paris to 49-1.

Monaco, the 13th seed, went into Monday's match with solid clay-court form under his belt having captured titles in Vina del Mar and Houston this year.

But he had lost all three previous clay meetings against Nadal, claiming just 10 games in the process, and the 28-year-old was swept aside again by the champion in just one hour and 46 minutes on Suzanne Lenglen court.

Nadal will start his quarter-final as comfortable favourite as he leads Almagro 7-0 in their series.

French Open results on Monday:

Men

Fourth Round

David Ferrer (6), Spain, def. Marcel Granollers (20), Spain, 6-3, 6-2, 6-0.
Nicolas Almagro (12), Spain, def. Janko Tipsarevic (8), Serbia, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (5), France, def. Stanislas Wawrinka (18), Switzerland, 6-4, 7-6 (8/6), 3-6, 3-6, 6-4.
Juan Martin del Potro (9), Argentina, def. Tomas Berdych (7), Czech Republic, 7-6 (8/6), 1-6, 6-3, 7-5.
Rafael Nadal (2), Spain, def. Juan Monaco (13), Argentina, 6-2, 6-0, 6-0.
Andy Murray (4), Britain, def. Richard Gasquet (17), France, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-2.

Women

Fourth Round

Yaroslava Shvedova, Kazakhstan, def. Li Na (7), China, 3-6, 6-2, 6-0.
Maria Sharapova (2), Russia, def. Klara Zakopalova, Czech Republic, 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-2.
Petra Kvitova (4), Czech Republic, def. Varvara Lepchenko, United States, 6-2, 6-1.