Nadal on course for title defence

Defending champion Rafael Nadal moved a step closer to claiming his first title of the season on Monday after recording a 6-1 6-3 victory against American teenager Donald Young at the Pacific Life Open.

The world number two, who lost to Andy Roddick in the Dubai quarter-finals last week, will face world number 17 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga for a place in the last eight after the Frenchman posted a 7-6 (7/5) 6-4 victory against compatriot Paul-Henri Mathieu.

Nadal beat Tsonga at the 2007 US Open, but the Spainard became a victim of the Frenchman’s unexpected run to the final at this year’s Australian Open, “In Australia I had a tough loss, but I’m going to try my best this time and improve,” said Nadal. “It’s going to be important to serve well because he’s strong in his serve, and from baseline, try to play a little bit more aggressive than in Australia.”

Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic eased into the last 16 with a comfortable 6-3 6-2 victory over Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber.

The third seed looked in control throughout the 70-minute contest and sealed the win in emphatic style on his first match point with back-to-back aces.

South Korea’s Lee Hyung-Taik prevailed in two hours and 51 minutes over fifth seed David Ferrer 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (5/7) 7-6 (7/3), while 16th seed Guillermo Canas beat fellow Argentinian Juan Monaco, the 21st seed, 6-3 6-7 (1 7), 6-2.

Eighth-seed Richard Gasquet of France also booked his place in the last 16 with a 6-2 6-1 triumph over 28th seed Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina in just over an hour.

Gasquet will face American James Blake after the world number nine secured a fourth quarter-finals berth in six outings this year with a 6-3 6-4 victory against 19th seed Carlos Moya of Spain.

Blake, the 2006 runner-up to Roger Federer, broke 1999 finalist Moya for the fourth time to go up 5-4 in the second set, and then served out the victory in 75 minutes.

“Getting the win was something I was proud of,” said Blake, who evened his career record with Moya at 6-6. “This was the first place I ever beat him. That held a lot of memories for me because he was a guy that beat me a couple of times early in my career, and I wondered if I’d ever get over that hump and be able to play a top player like him. To beat him here when I felt like I was I was playing really well the first time was a big stepping stone in my career.”

Finally, an out-of-sorts Marcos Baghdatis suffered a 6-3, 6-7 (1/7) 6-0 defeat by Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka.

The Cypriot world number 18 struggled through the opening set and despite engineering a revival in the second, fell well short of the requited standard as Wawrinka set-up a meeting with Lee after winning in two hours and nine minutes.