Imperious Nadal drops just three games

World No 2 Rafa Nadal swept into the third round of the Barcelona Open when he thrashed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-1, 6-2 as he began his quest for a seventh Conde de Godo trophy in eight years yesterday.

Fresh from a record eighth straight win at last week’s Monte Carlo Masters, Nadal dispatched his 78th-ranked Spanish compatriot in a little over one hour and 20 minutes, and will play another Spaniard, Pablo Andujar, or Colombian Robert Farah for a place in tomorrow’s quarter- finals.

Top seed Nadal, whose victory was his 30th in a row at the clay event in the Catalan capital, told reporters he had felt a slight twinge of pain in his left knee, an injury that forced his withdrawal from last month’s Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, but said it was nothing to worry about.

“It went better than I thought, I played a good match,” the Mallorca native added. “I made few errors, but I felt good on my backhand for virtually the whole time and I was solid across the board.”

Third seed David Ferrer of Spain eased into the third round when he thumped Filip Krajinovic of Serbia 6-0, 6-3 to set up a clash with compatriot Albert Montanes, a 6-0, 5-7, 7-5 victor over Australia’s Bernard Tomic.

Andy Murray, the second seed who went through on Tuesday, takes on Santiago Giraldo for a place in the last eight after the Colombian beat Robin Haase of Netherlands 6-4, 6-3. Yesterday, Murray teamed up with his brother Jamie to progress in the doubles. They defeated Kevin Anderson and Frank Moser 6-4, 6-4 in just under an hour and a quarter to wrap up victory and progress to the last 16.

Meanwhile, world No 1 Novak Djokovic has pulled out of his home Serbia Open following the death of his grandfather during the Monte Carlo Masters event last week.

“I’ve made a decision not to take part in the tournament this year,” Djokovic, the title holder at the Belgrade claycourt event, said on his website. “This is certainly one of the toughest decisions in my career, but it is impossible for me to play in the next few days and to think about tennis when there are some other things in my head.”

The Serb said he had “no emotional energy left” after being thrashed by Nadal in the Monte Carlo final last Sunday, and would be back in action at the Madrid Masters, which starts on 6 May. The Serbia Open, which starts on 30 May, is organised by Djokovic’s uncle Goran.

On the women’s tour, world No 2 Maria Sharapova eased into the quarter-finals of the Stuttgart indoor tournament after France’s Alize Cornet retired with an injury at the start of the second set. Sharapova, hoping to complete her set of Grand Slams with victory at the French Open, had added the Stuttgart clay court event to her calendar to prepare for next month’s tournament at Roland Garros.

Cornet, however, gave her a short start on the indoor clay courts retiring with a shoulder injury while trailing 6-3, 1-0.

“It was Alize’s fifth match in five days. Tennis is very tough on the body,” said Sharapova. “Practising helps, but matches are always a bit different. You have to get used to the different match situations.”

Former world No 1 Caroline Wozniacki advanced to the second round by the same score after fellow Serbian Jelena Jankovic also retired injured.

Germany’s Mona Barthel sent Ana Ivanovic packing 7-5, 7-6 to confirm her fine form this year and set up a second-round clash with French seventh seed Marion Bartoli.