Tennis: Nadal wins all-Spanish clash

FRANKFURT - Top seed Rafael Nadal brushed aside fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 6-3 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals of the Mercedes Cup tennis tournament in Stuttgart today.

The French Open champion took just 76 minutes to improve his winning run on clay to 31 matches and stay on course for an eighth title of the year. Second seed Nikolay Davydenko had a slightly more taxing 7-6 6-3 victory over German wild card Alexander Waske earlier on centre-court.

The Russian missed a chance to serve for the set in game 10 and was relieved to come through against his big-serving opponent 7-3 on the tie-break before easing to the second set.

Davydenko will play number 11 seed Tomas Berdych in the quarter-finals.

Third seed Gaston Gaudio beat Paul-Henri Mathieu of France 6-2 6-7 6-0 to set up an all-Argentine quarter-final against Mariano Zabaleta.

Italian Andreas Seppi caused the day's biggest upset, overcoming fourth seed Tommy Robredo of Spain 7-5 2-6 6-1.

Robredo was followed out of the tournament by sixth seed Jiri Novak, who went down 2-6 6-2 7-6 to Finland's Jarkko Nieminen, who took the final-set tie-break 10-8.

Nieminen and Seppi play each other in the quarter-finals.

- REUTERS