Djokovic through in Miami

Top seed Novak Djokovic made routine progress into the last eight of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami with a straight-sets win over Richard Gasquet.

The Serb served six aces and broke serve three times to record a 7-5 6-3 win over the 17th seed and set up a quarter-final against David Ferrer, who beat Juan Martin Del Potro 6-3 6-3.

“I have high goals and expectations, but I take one match at a time,” Djokovic told www.atptour.com.

“I feel physically I’m fresh, fit. Mentally I’m always there. I always want to win every match that I play.”

Britain’s Andy Murray, seeded fourth, was similarly untroubled as he also powered past a French opponent, beating Gilles Simon 6-3 6-4.

The Scot will face Janko Tipsarevic after the ninth-seeded Serbian beat Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 7-6 (7/3), 6-2.

And in the other half of the draw, it was a similar story for Rafael Nadal as the second seed beat Kei Nishikori 6-4 6-4.

The Spaniard needed over two hours to complete a more hard-fought victory than the straight-sets scoreline suggests, but nevertheless reached a sixth straight quarter-final.

“The beginning was a very tough match for me,” said Nadal afterwards.

“In the second set I started well, 3-0. Just [at] 5-3, I didn’t play my best game there and he broke me. [I was] happy to have the break back later and finally win the match.”

Andy Roddick crashed down to earth following his victory over Roger Federer as he lost 7-5 6-0 to 21st seed Juan Monaco.

Eighth seed Mardy Fish beat Nicolas Almagro 6-3, 6-7 (2/7), and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga saw off Florian Mayer 6-3 6-2.

In the first of the women’s quarter-finals, second seed Maria Sharapova hammered China’s Li Na 6-3 6-0 in an hour and nine minutes in a match containing neither an ace nor a double fault.

It is the fourth time Sharapova has reached the semi-finals at this tournament but represents her first win – and, indeed, the first time she has even won a set – in five meetings with Li.

“I came into this match losing to her the last few times. I really wanted to change that,” Sharapova said afterwards.

“I was really consistent today in conditions where it was a little gusty and blowing around, and I faced a tough opponent too. I did a good job of maintaining my consistency throughout the whole match.”

There was disappointment for the home fans as Serena Williams lost 6-4 6-4 to fourth seed Caroline Wozniacki.