Rafael Nadal Leads 6 Spaniards into Quarterfinals at Barcelona

Only one Spaniard, Albert Montanes, fell on Thursday, losing to sixth-seeded Jurgen Melzer, who came off the recent high of beating Roger Federer in Monte Carlo. Melzer took the match in three sets 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-2.

However, the Spanish Armada World No. 1 Rafael Nadal, fourth-seeded David Ferrer, eighth-seeded Nicolas Almagro, Juan Carlos Ferrero and Feliciano Lopez were victorous at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell.

Melzer will meet with David Ferrer for the second time in two weeks to potentially get his revenge. Ferrer defeated Romanian Victor Hanescu 6-3, 6-2.

A man on a mission, Nadal finished Santiago Girlado 6-3, 6-1 to meet with Gael Monfils next after World No. 9 Monfils took out fellow Frenchman Richard Gasquet 6-4, 7-6(7). Nadal leads their head-to-head series 7-1. The last time Monfils had an edge over Nadal was back in 2009 at the Doha quarterfinals on hard court.

When asked by the press about his thoughts and tactics against Nadal, Monfils said, "I don’t know yet, I’ll think about it tomorrow."

Almagro will face off with Ferrero in the quarterfinals. Almagro beat Nikolay Davydenko, and Ferrero took out Simone Vagnozzi. Feliciano Lopez defeated Houston Clay Court finalist Kei Nishikori 6-4, 7-6(5), which is a great victory for him since he has had a 7-10 win/loss record in 2011.  He will play Croatian Ivan Dodig, who outserved 15th-seeded Milos Raonic in a close match 7-6(0), 4-6, 6-3 with nine aces and also defeated the No. 3 seed Robin Soderling the previous day. Raonic, at the second clay court tournament, didn't go down without heart, as he grinded for points and even came back from 4-1 in the last set.

Lauren Lynch is a Correspondent for Bleacher Report.  Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained firsthand or from official interview materials.

Tennis Now