Nadal in, Soderling out in open quarters

MELBOURNE, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- No. 1-ranked Rafael Nadal moved into the Australian Open quarterfinals with a straight-set victory Monday but fourth-seeded Robin Soderling was ousted.

Nadal completed quarterfinal play with a 6-2, 6-4, 6-3 win over 15th-seeded Marin Cilic. Nadal has yet to drop a set in his quest for a fourth consecutive Grand Slam title.

Cilic, who had beaten Nadal in their only previous meeting, managed just two break-point chances against Nadal and hurt his own chances with 48 unforced errors. Nadal had 21 unforced errors.

Soderling was defeated by unseeded Alexandr Dolgopolov 1-6, 6-3, 6-1, 4-6, 6-2. Dolgopolov had 11 aces among his 50 winners and cashed in nine of his 17 break-point chances.

Soderling hadn't lost a set until the second set against Dolgopolov. Dolgopolov landed just 50 percent of his first serves but won 79 percent of the points when he did and won nearly as many (67-71) points on Soderling's serve as Soderling did.

That denied an anticipated quarterfinal match between Soderling and No. 5-seeded Andy Murray, who has been as dominant as Nadal through four rounds. Murray dumped 11th-seeded Jurgen Melzer 6-3, 6-1, 6-1 -- the second consecutive match he had two one-loss sets. Murray had just 10 unforced errors Monday.

No. 7-seeded David Ferrer needed four sets to claim his quarterfinal spot. He ended the run of qualifier Milos Raonic 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4.

For that, he advances to a match with Nadal, who's 11-3 lifetime against Ferrer. Nadal has won the last seven meetings with Ferrer's most recent win over Nadal coming in 2007. Murray won his only match against Dolgopolov but that was in 2006.

Six of the top eight seeds remain in the men's draw with No. 19 Stanislas Wawrinka and Dolgopolov the only interlopers. Wawrinka plays No. 2-ranked Roger Federer in the quarterfinals. No. 3 Novak Djokovic meets sixth-seeded Tomas Berdych in the other quarter in that half of the draw.