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Rafa Nadal and
Roger Federer continued on a collision course towards the Monte Carlo
Masters final after easily winning their third round matches in
contrasting conditions on Thursday.

Nadal braved
unusually chilly temperatures on the sun-kissed Cote d’Azur to seal a
place in quarter-finals with a straightforward 6-2, 6-4 victory over
Richard Gasquet.

While the crowd
huddled for warmth deciding whether to cheer six-times champion Nadal
or local favourite Gasquet, the Spaniard had already broken the
Frenchman in the first game as his sheer power again overawed an
opponent.

The top seed,
bidding to be the first man to win the same tournament seven times in a
row as he warms up for next month’s French Open, almost lost the next
game but held serve thanks to a stunning backhand down the line and
hardly looked back.

Gasquet did break
for 4-4 in the second set to reveal some chinks in Nadal’s armour,
offering pretenders to his crown a glimmer of hope that the Spaniard is
beatable on clay.

Second seed Federer
staked his claim with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Croatia’s Marin Cilic
after the sun had broken through the clouds at the Monte Carlo Country
Club.

Superb winners

The Swiss barely got out of first gear but unleashed some superb winners and the result was never in doubt.

Fourth seed David
Ferrer earlier navigated his way through the third round with a 6-1,
6-3 win over Canada’s fast-rising Milos Raonic but Tomas Berdych hit
the rocks when he was overwhelmed by Croatia’s Ivan Ljubicic, who next
faces Nadal on Friday.

Raonic, who has
rocketed from 156th in the rankings at the year’s start to 34th, had no
answer to the Spaniard’s guile as Ferrer romped to victory.

Czech fifth seed
Berdych, was cast aside by rampant Ljubicic 6-4, 6-2 while Viktor
Troicki also went through after Spain’s Tommy Robredo retired hurt
while leading 6-3, 1-2 with an apparent hamstring injury.

World number four Andy Murray, next faces France’s Gilles Simon
hoping to build on his opening victory over Radek Stepanek – his first
win in two and a half months.