Nadal flattens Verdasco

Three-times champion Rafael Nadal pummelled fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco into a 6-1 6-0 6-2 submission to reach the quarter-finals of the French Open yesterday.

Verdasco was the fourth successive left-hander to take on the Mallorcan but he suffered the same fate as all those who went before him - a straight-sets drubbing.

Nadal returned everything Verdasco could throw at him, usually with interest, to extend his perfect Roland Garros record to 25-0.

"It wasn't a good day for him," Nadal, who turns 22 tomorrow, said after extending his record over the hapless Verdasco to 6-0.

Verdasco employed a variety of strategies to try and prick Nadal's aura of invincibility.

He tried playing to his backhand, the ball came back fizzing. He tried to chip and charge, only to get passed. He tried to outfox Nadal with dropshots, the ball ended up kissing the tape and rolling back into his side of the court.

At one point Verdasco was standing so far behind the baseline to receive the Nadal serve, he probably had a better view of the Eiffel Tower in the centre of Paris than he did of his opponent.

Aiming to become the first player since Bjorn Borg in 1981 to capture a fourth successive title here, Nadal will finally get a chance to test his game against a right hander when he takes on compatriot Nicolas Almagro in the last eight.

Earlier in the day, Serbia hogged the French Open limelight when first Ana Ivanovic raced and then Jelena Jankovic hobbled into the quarter-finals before Novak Djokovic struck another blow to the hopes of a home champion.

Second seed Ivanovic played with the urgency of a woman late for a lunch appointment as she ruthlessly dismantled Czech Petra Cetkovska 6-0 6-0 in 54 minutes on Court Philippe Chatrier.

While Ivanovic's win was painfully easy, Jankovic's was just downright painful.

Jankovic needed a 10-minute medical time-out after game three of the second set against Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska before she crawled past the finishing line with a 6-3 7-6 victory.

"The whole arm is a mess," said Jankovic, who resembled a wrestler pinned to the floor as the tournament trainer massaged her arm and shoulder back to life.

"I started to feel the pain at the beginning of the second set and since then it's been pain, pain, pain," said the 23-year-old, who will next face Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro. Ivanovic now plays Swiss 10th seed Patty Schnyder.

Djokovic was in no mood to let Paul-Henri Mathieu put him off his mission of a first Roland Garros title.

He swept past the French 18th seed 6-4 6-3 6-4 and now faces his childhood training partner Ernests Gulbis, of Latvia, for a place in the semis.

Gulbis is the only Latvian ever to grace the grand slam stage and the 19-year-old did the Baltic state proud by silencing the partisan crowd on Court Suzanne Lenglen with a 6-4 7-6 6-3 win over Frenchman Michael Llodra.

The triumph carried him to his first grand slam quarter-final and the mild-mannered world number 80 was in no mood for extravagant celebration.

"I'm happy. I mean, after the match, I don't want to jump around and do crazy stuff. I'm just relieved that at last it's over," said Gulbis, like Djokovic a product of Niki Pilic's academy in Munich.