Nadal crushes Garcia-Lopez in Barcelona opener

REUTERS: World number two Rafa Nadal swept into the third round of the Barcelona Open when he thrashed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-1 6-2 as he began his quest for a seventh Conde de Godo trophy in eight years on Wednesday.

Fresh from a record eighth straight win at last week’s Monte Carlo Masters, Nadal dispatched his 78th-ranked Spanish compatriot in a little over one hour and 20 minutes and will play another Spaniard, Pablo Andujar, or Colombian Robert Farah for a place in Friday’s quarter-finals.

Top seed Nadal, whose victory was his 30th in a row at the clay event in the Catalan capital, told reporters he had felt a slight twinge of pain in his left knee, an injury that forced his withdrawal from last month’s Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, but said it was nothing to worry about.

“It went better than I thought, I played a good match,” the Mallorca native added.

“I made few errors, I felt good on my backhand for virtually the whole time and I was solid across the board.”

Third seed David Ferrer of Spain eased into the third round when he thumped Filip Krajinovic of Serbia 6-0 6-3 to set up a clash with compatriot Albert Montanes, a 6-0 5-7 7-5 victor over Australia’s Bernard Tomic.

Britain’s Andy Murray, the second seed who went through on Tuesday, takes on Santiago Giraldo for a place in the last eight on Thursday after the Colombian beat Robin Haase of Netherlands 6-4 6-3.