Ferrero, Moya, Costa lead
Spanish charge
Second seed Juan Carlos Ferrero romped into the quarter-finals of the Monte Carlo Masters on Thursday in just 35 minutes.
A recurring knee injury forced Chile's former champion Marcelo Rios to quit while trailing the Spaniard 6-0, 2-0.
The former world number one, who won here in 1997 but also retired in the 1999 final, first suffered the injury in Miami in March.
Another former world number one, Carlos Moya, brushed aside close friend and fellow Spaniard Alex Corretja 6-1, 7-5 to join Ferrero in the last eight.
The clay court clash was a repeat of the 1998 French Open final which Moya also won and the victory gives him a 7-5 lead over the 13th seed in head-to-heads.
A third Spaniard, Albert Costa, also battled through, beating compatriot Alberto Martin 7-5, 6-3.
He will next play seventh seed Sebastien Grosjean after the Frenchman shrugged off a hamstring injury to beat 11th seed Jiri Novak 6-1, 7-6.
The Spaniards were joined in the quarters by British fourth seed Tim Henman, who showed great resolve to beat his third successive Latin American opponent, Juan Ignacio Chela, 6-2, 6-7, 6-4.
In the first round Henman, a quarter-finalist last year, beat Argentine Guillermo Coria before sweeping aside Chilean Nicolas Massu on Wednesday.
More comfortable on the slick turf of Wimbledon than anywhere else, Henman's mastery of the slow, red European clay has come on leaps and bounds in the last year and he looked at home against Chela in his two hours 11 minutes victory.
Ferrero had bombarded Rios with vicious groundstrokes and accurate serving and Rios looked increasingly bewildered before finally wandering to the side of the court to shake hands with Ferrero.
ROMPED THROUGH
Ferrero will face German fifth seed Tommy Haas or American 10th seed Andy Roddick, who meet later on Thursday.
Moya, the Monte Carlo champion in 1998, romped through the opening set in half an hour.
But Corretja, who was French Open runner-up for a second time last year, showed his clay court pedigree to fight back in the second set.
Matching his fellow baseliner with heavy top spin on his looping groundstrokes, Corretja clawed his way back into the contest.
But Moya would not be denied and booked his place in the last eight of the $2.95 million event by edging 6-5 ahead the breaking Corretja's serve.
The 25-year-old said: "It was a tough match. But I love coming here ... it is a great tournament. I have won before so I am always confident here."
Having already beaten world number one and top seed Lleyton Hewitt in the opening round, Moya is confirming his status of dangerous floater.
He could face sixth seed Marat Safin for a place in the semifinals.
The Russian, who beat French 15-year-old sensation Richard Gasquet in the second round, plays Argentine David Nalbandian later on Thursday.
Nalbandian is also on a hot streak, having outplayed ninth-seeded Swiss Roger Federer in the second round 6-2, 6-1.
