Federer ends Balleret's Monte Carlo adventure

MONTE CARLO, Apr 20 (Reuters) World number one Roger Federer today cruised into the Monte Carlo Open quarter-finals, ending the adventure of hometown qualifier Benjamin Balleret 6-3 6-2.

Defending champion Rafael Nadal struggled for one hour and 37 minutes to overcome a strong challenge from unheralded Belgian Kristof Vliegen.

The mighty Spaniard, still far from his best form on clay, broke his opponent's serve early in the first set and midway through the second to wrap up the game 6-3 6-3 on his first match point.

In the surprise result of the day, 15th seed Tony Robredo of Spain defeated third seed David Nalbandian of Argentina 5-7 6-1 7-5 after more than three hours on court.

Swiss top seed Federer's next opponent will be eighth seed David Ferrer of Spain who battled past 11th seed Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-1 6-7 6-3 in an all-Spanish baseline duel.

Ferrer and Federer met in the semi-finals of the Nasdaq-100 Open in Miami three weeks ago when the Swiss swept aside the Spaniard 6-1 6-4.

Croatian fourth seed Ivan Ljubicic dispatched Gilles Simon, the last French hope, 6-3 6-2. The result means that France will not have a player in the Monte Carlo quarter-finals for only the second time in 10 years.

BACK INJURY Balleret recorded the win of his life in the second round when he ousted Sebastien Grosjean, France's number one and the 13th seed.

Grosjean retired with a back injury when Balleret was leading 4-6 7-5 3-2. He was rewarded by a match against Federer, who took only 55 minutes to win.

''It was a fabulous experience,'' the 23-year-old Balleret said.

''It's even better because I have the feeling that Roger didn't take me lightly and played his real game.

''I did what I could and never felt ridiculous but it was a bit difficult at the end.'' Ranked 351 in the world, Balleret was playing in his first ATP tournament after coming straight from the Futures circuit, two levels below.

The son of former French Fed Cup player Alexia Dechaume and tennis coach Bernard Balleret, he was two points away from losing in the first round of the qualifying tournament.

''I was hoping to go through the first qualifying round. I proved to myself I could make it if I worked hard enough in training. I hope it will go on,'' he said.

The match against Ferrer was yet another disappointment for Ferrero, who is still struggling to recover the form which took him to the French Open title and the number one spot in 2003.

After losing the first set in 24 minutes, the 26-year-old Ferrero, winner in Monte Carlo in 2002 and 2003, clawed his way back into the match, clinching the second set 7-5 in the tie-break.

In the third set, he could not match Ferrer's powerful ground strokes and bowed out after two hours 21 minutes on his opponent's second match point.

REUTERS KD KN2340