World number three David Ferrer eased into the quarter-finals of the Valencia Open on Thursday with a 6-2 6-1 win over Julien Benneteau.
It wasn’t quite as easy as the scoreline suggests for the number one seed as he had to withstand early pressure on his own serve from the Frenchman in both sets.
However, Ferrer was much too strong for the world number 33 on the big points and rounded off victory in little over an hour.
“It was a very good match, very complete on my part,” Ferrer told Spanish TV station Teledeporte.
“There were some very difficult physical rallies and it wasn’t easy because he had break points in both sets.”
The Spaniard will continue his quest for a fourth title in his home region on Friday when he faces fifth seed Jerzy Janowicz.
The Pole was once again dominant on serve as he didn’t even face a break point in beating Portugal’s Joao Sousa 6-2 7-5 to book his place in the last eight.
Ferrer is aware that he’ll need to produce his best tennis to dispose of the Wimbledon semi-finalist.
“It will be a very hard match. Janowicz is a great player. His serve is very strong and I need play a great match to beat him,” said Ferrer.
The bottom half of the draw, however, is now devoid of seeds after fourth seed John Isner was dumped out by Jeremy Chardy 7-6 (9-7) 6-3.
Frenchman Chardy will now face Dmitry Tursunov of Russia for a place in the last four.