Nicolas Almagro of Spain reached the French Open quarter-finals on Monday with a dominant 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 win over Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia. The 12th seed will play either second seed and defending champion Rafael Nadal of Spain or Juan Monaco of Argentina for a place in the semi-finals. Earlier, David Ferrer reached the French Open quarter-finals 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. The 26-year-old Almagro had reached the French Open quarter-finals twice before in 2008 and 2010, losing to Nadal in both instances, but was knocked off in the first round last year.
He shrugged off the prospect of facing Nadal again. "Nobody's going to give you a free gift during the quarter-finals in Roland Garros," Almagro told journalists. "I will continue and play my game. I'll play my best tennis." Any memories of his dismal 2011 campaign were forgotten as Almagro shook off a slow start to fire off four aces against Tipsarevic on his way to winning the first set in cold and damp conditions at Suzanne Lenglen court.
He never looked back, scoring a total of nine aces in the entire match. In the second set, the Spaniard successfully set up break point in the seventh game to nose ahead 4-3 with a lucky forehand return that barely made it over the net and wrong-footed the Serb.
Almagro, who was on a seven-match winning streak going into the match including victories at Sao Paulo and Nice, finished off the set with another ace down the middle. "I like dictating the rhythm, the pace of the match," Almagro said, attributing his improved game to maturity. "I've gained more confidence, and that's the main change in me."
In the third set, Almagro got his first break early when he forced Tipsarevic into net errors in the first game, but he was broken in the next when he double-faulted. Tipsarevic managed to hold in the third game despite notching his fifth double fault but the Spaniard's answer was another ace to level the match 2-2.
The sixth seed Ferrer 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.
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