Nadal wins third-round match in Barcelona

BARCELONA, Spain, April 23 (UPI) -- Men's world No. 1 Rafael Nadal blitzed Christophe Rochus in straight sets at Thursday's third round of the Barcelona Open tennis tournament.

The top-seeded Nadal won 6-2, 6-0 in just 56 minutes to improve to 23-1 lifetime at the event.

Nadal was scheduled to face Argentina's David Nalbandian in Friday's quarterfinals, but Nalbandian withdrew with a hip injury after a 6-3, 6-4 victory against 10th-seeded Nicolas Almagro of Spain.

Second-seeded Fernando Verdasco of Spain topped 15th-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic 7-5, 5-7, 6-4; third-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia outlasted 16th-seeded Feliciano Lopez of Spain 7-6 (10-8), 3-6, 6-4; fourth-seeded David Ferrer of Spain was a 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 winner over unseeded Italian Potito Starace; and Spain's Tommy Robredo, the sixth seed, beat 12th-seeded Igor Andreev of Russia 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Friday's quarterfinal matches will feature Verdasco vs. Gonzalez and Davydenko vs. Radek Stepanek. Nadal has a bye.

The eventual champion will earn $370,000 in Sunday's final.