Murray, Rafa advance in Barcelona

Andy Murray crushed Colombia's Santiago Giraldo in a powerful 6-1, 6-2 display on Thursday to set up a quarter-final showdown with Milos Raonic at the Barcelona Open.

Andy Murray crushed Colombia's Santiago Giraldo in a powerful 6-1, 6-2 display on Thursday to set up a quarter-final showdown with Milos Raonic at the Barcelona Open.

Second seed Murray, a quarter-finalist a week ago in Monte Carlo, reached the last eight again as he builds for the French Open next month.

Murray and number 25 Raonic, who put out two-time semi-finalist Nicolas Almagro 6-3, 6-3, will finally clash in a match which should have been played in March at Miami had the Canadian not suffered an injury and been forced to withdraw to give Murray the walkover third-round win.

Rafael Nadal ran out his 31st consecutive match win to reach the quarter-finals at the expense of Colombian qualifier Robert Farah 6-2, 6-3.

Djokovic won't defend title
World No.1 Novak Djokovic announced that he will not defend his title at next week's Serbian Open.

The Serbian opted to rest in a bid to recharge his batteries ahead of the clay Masters in Madrid.

Wildcard Barthel stuns Bartoli
Wildcard Mona Barthel claimed her second scalp at Stuttgart's clay-court WTA tournament on Thursday to reach the last eight after she knocked out seventh seed Marion Bartoli. The 21-year-old German, who blasted down 11 aces to out-muscle ex-world number one Ana Ivanovic on Wednesday in straight sets, needed just 71 minutes to beat France's Bartoli 6-3, 6-1 as she hit a further seven aces.

There were no such problems for French Open winner Li Na, the eighth seed, who beat Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan 6-4, 6-4 in their second round tie and the Chinese will play Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska in the quarterfinals.