Top Seeds Continue to Roll in Rome

The top-seeded Federer had little trouble dispatching Radek Stepanek 6-1, 6-4, to set up a Friday showdown with the surging Spaniard Nicolas Almagro, who earned the victory when his opponent Nikolay Davydenko retired after dropping a first-set tiebreak. Davydenko reportedly retired because his coach/brother told him to from the crowd.

Nadal crushed the overmatched Brit Tim Henman 6-2, 6-2. The win was Nadal’s 50th straight on the dirt, second only to Guillermo Vilas’ Open Era men’s mark of 53.

"Yes, 50, it's a lot of victories, but I'm not especially happy about that, but about the fact that I am in the quarterfinals, which is in this important tournament,” Nadal said. “I've had some difficult matches, especially the one with Moya."

The 19-year-old Spanish Bull now plays the hard-hitting Fernando Gonzalez, a straight-set winner over Tomas “Baby Marat” Berdych.

In the all-bad-backhand match-up, Roddick got by Greg Rusedski 7-6, 6-2. Roddick never faced a break point while the American broke the Canadian-turned-Brit twice to seal the second set and the match. Roddick, who reached the Rome semifinals in 2002, will now face Gael Monfils in an intriguing quarterfinal on Friday.

"[Clay] is a challenge for me. Obviously, there are times when it's extremely frustrating, but I enjoy the challenge of playing on all surfaces. I actually have a lot of fun playing on clay. I'm just trying to get better at it,” Roddick said.

Monfils used his Roddick-like service motion and incorporated patience to solve his always-complex countryman Fabrice Santoro 7-6(7), 6-2.

The final quarterfinal will pit Mario Ancic against Naldbandian. Ancic escaped match points for the second straight match defeating Spaniard Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo 6-3, 6-7(5), 7-5 to reach his second straight Tennis Masters Series quarterfinal (Miami).

"At the end of the match, I was really tired, which is very normal considering I played yesterday a very long match, today a very long match, on clay where there is a lot of rallies,” Ancic said. “It's very normal to be tired. I was injured a couple weeks before here. So for me, this is really to get more matches on clay. Each match I think I played better and better."

Nalbandian, meanwhile, got by qualifier Alberto Martin 7-5, 6-4.