Nadal in peak form as Spain has a ball in Monte Carlo

He will next face fellow Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero, who had the upper hand against France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, prevailing 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 in an entertaining third-round contest.

"Juan Carlos is a player who has won more matches this year on clay and he is coming with big confidence. It is going to be really difficult," said Nadal.

The Spaniard, bidding for an unprecedented sixth consecutive title in the principality, dropped only one game in his second-round match against Dutch qualifier Thiemo De Bakker, and it had looked like the world No 51 might taste an even heavier defeat.

"I played better than yesterday because I played higher," said Nadal. "I played close to the lines, and my feeling is that I had more control on the ball than yesterday. Good backhands. Very good forehands down the line."

Berrer, a finalist in the Zagreb tournament earlier this year, won only five points in the opening set, but by the fourth game of the second set he 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.

Another Spaniard, 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.

Ferrer will face Philipp Kohlschreiber, who advanced after beating fellow German Philipp Petzschner 6-3, 6-4, with a possible match-up against claycourt machine Nadal looming.

The 11th-seeded Ferrer was initially barely bothered by his opponent's usually lethal first serve, and eighth seed 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.

Ljubicic dropped serve in the third game, but Ferrer allowed the Croatian to level at 5-5 with a forehand winner. Ferrer got his act together in the tiebreak, however, 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.

Top seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia kept his focus in a 6-4, 6-4 dismissal of Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka.

The Serb, hoping for a rematch of last year's final against Nadal, broke decisively in the ninth game of the opening set before opening a 4-1 lead in the second with an almost flawless display.

Most of the spectators had already deserted the Monte Carlo Country Club when Djokovic wrapped the match up. He will next take on Argentine David Nalbandian, who saw off Spain's Tommy Robredo 6-3, 6-4.

Andy Murray's miserable week continued as he followed up Wednesday's woeful singles exit with defeat in the second round of the doubles.

He and partner Ross Hutchins stunned Bob and Mike Bryan by taking the opening set on a tie-break, but the second-seeded doubles pairing swiftly rallied.

And the Bryan twins, who won their 59th career title last Sunday in Houston, showed their class as they took the match 6-7 (4/7), 6-2, 10-2.