Photo: CRIENGLISH/AFP

BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- World number one Roger Federer eased into the Monte Carlo Open quarter-finals on Thursday, beating qualifier Benjamin Balleret 6-3, 6-2.

    "I did what I could and never felt ridiculous but it was a bit difficult at the end," Balleret said.

    The Swiss top seed'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. The Swiss swept the Spaniard aside 6-1, 6-4.

    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 the clay court.

    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 the second time in 10 years. Enditem