Nalbandian blasts into quarters
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Lleyton Hewitt faces a big test to reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.
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MELBOURNE, Australia -- David Nalbandian demolished fellow Argentine Guillermo Canas 6-4 6-2 6-1 on Monday to reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open for the second year running.
The win came as Australia's Mark Philippoussis struggled in his 3rd round match against Moroccan Hichman Arazi. The local favorite lost the first set and immediately dropped serve in the second.
He is 1-4 down in the second set.
Spanish third seed Juan Carlos Ferrero beat Andrei Pavel 6-4 3-6 6-3 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals. He will play the winner of the Philippoussis-Arazi game.
Nalbandian, seeded eighth, cruised to victory in just 104 minutes to continue his great run of form in the tournament so far.
The former Wimbledon finalist has not dropped a single set in his four matches to date while Canas was unable to repeat his heroic effort in the third round when he beat Tim Henman in an epic five setter.
Nalbandian will play either Lleyton Hewitt or Roger Federer in the quarter-finals.
Favorites Andy Roddick and Andre Agassi hit the court 24 hours later.
Hewitt plays Wimbledon champion and Swiss star Federer, who has won only two of his 10 matches against the aggressive Australian Hewitt.
Federer has been in great form during the first week of the Open, winning all his matches in straight sets.
The top four men's seeds – Roddick, Agassi, Federer and Juan Carlos Ferrero -- are in awesome form. Only Ferrero has dropped sets.
Roddick will have to be on his best form with a clash against the unpredictable Russian Marat Safin in the first quarter-final Tuesday.
Safin is unseeded and has slumped to a world ranking of No.86 since his U.S. Open victory against Pete Sampras three years ago.
He has played Roddick only once, thrashing him 6-3 6-4.
Roddick recalled that clash in a post-match interview, saying: "We had similar games, but he was pretty much just better at everything then. A lot has changed since then, that was a long time ago."
Victory for world No.1 Roddick will put him on course for a highly anticipated semi-final clash against Agassi, who has taken his unbeaten run of matches at the Australian Open to 25.
Agassi confronts Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean, whom he beat in straight sets at the same stage of the Australian Open last year.
"I feel like I've experienced every part of my game throughout this first week and I've liked the levels I've hit," said Agassi, who at 33 is the oldest player in the tournament.
Agassi has won three of his five matches against Grosjean, who has reached the quarter-final of a Grand Slam event on six previous occasions.
