Tennis: Ferrer into last eight at French Open

AFP, Monday 4 Jun 2012

Ferrer beats Marcel Granollers to book a place in the French Open quarter-finals on Monday

David Ferrer of Spain
David Ferrer of Spain (Photo: AP)

David Ferrer reached the French Open quarter-finals on Monday with a 6-3, 6-2, 6-0 win over fellow Spaniard Marcel Granollers.

The sixth seed's opponent in the last eight will be the winner of the match between fourth seed Andy Murray of Britain and Richard Gasquet of France.

Played in weather conditions more suited to late November than early June, and in front of a paltry set of fans on the Philippe Chatrier centre court, Ferrer made it four straight sets wins out of four against his younger countryman.

The sixth seed simply had too much power and experience for his opponent, accelerating smoothly away from him after grabbing the first break of serve in the match in the sixth game of the first set.

He stormed through the second set for the loss of just two games and with Granollers looking increasingly deflated, Ferrer had no difficulty in closing out what had been a lop-sided contest.

The 30-year-old Ferrer, who is in the last eight at Roland Garros for the third time, was one of four Spaniards to reach the last 16 in the bottom half of the draw.

Second seed, and defending champion, Rafael Nadal was playing later against Juan Monaco of Argentina, while Nicolas Almagro was taking on Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia.

Two matches held over from Sunday due to darkness were to be completed.

Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the fifth seed, was 4-2 up in the fifth set against Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka, while Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina was two sets to one up against Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic.

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