Rafael Nadal won his 39th consecutive match on clay courts and kept alive his pursuit of back-to-back titles at Masters Series Monte-Carlo presented by Rolex as he defeated Belgian Kristof Vliegen by identical 6-3 sets Thursday afternoon.
Despite winning in straight sets, Nadal needed an hour and 45 minutes to claim the victory against the Belgian up-and-comer. Vliegen took the early break in the first set to which Nadal quickly responded by leveling the score at 2-2. He needed just one more break of serve to seal the set and again went 2 for 4 on break chances in the second set to close out the victory.
Nadal, whose clay court winning streak began at the 2005 Masters Series Monte-Carlo, is now the sole owner of the fourth longest streak in Open Era history. He would tie Thomas Muster with a win in the quarterfinals.
The 23-year-old Vliegen was making his Monte-Carlo debut this year, playing in only his fifth ATP Masters Series event. His previous best Masters Series result came last month in Miami, a third-round loss to Juan Ignacio Chela.
Nadal will next meet 2004 champion Guillermo Coria, who has reached the event final for three years running.
Coria put together another hard-fought victory one day after posting an impressive comeback against Paul-Henri Mathieu in the second round, once again taking the difficult route to victory. The Argentine raced out to a 5-1 lead in the first set against German Nicolas Kiefer in their afternoon match, but faltered to maintain the lead, losing the first set in the tie-break. Coria regrouped to clinch the 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-3 victory in two hours, 43 minutes.
Nadal's quarterfinal opponent from last year, Argentine Gaston Gaudio, also advanced Thursday with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Italian qualifier Alessio Di Mauro. He will go head-to-head with first-time quarterfinalist Tommy Robredo, the No. 15 seed, for the seventh time in their careers. They split their last two meetings on hard courts at the two ATP Masters Series events in Toronto and Cincinnati last summer.
Seventh-seeded Gaudio has a 14-5 event record, with his best result coming six years ago when he defeated Juan Carlos Ferrero to reach the semifinals, a match he lost to Dominik Hrbaty.
