TENNIS/Masters Series:While this historic tournament is fighting to retain its status among the elite Masters series - second in standing only to the four grand slams - the top players have been deserting it all week. Eight of the world's top 10 were entered, with Andy Murray, who yesterday pulled out of next week's event in Barcelona, the first to depart after damaging his back.
By yesterday the only two left were Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Not that the organisers were complaining.
Should Sunday's final once again feature the world's top two players then everybody will be happy, for it was this battle that proved gripping during last year's clay-court season, with Nadal emerging triumphant after defeating Federer here, in the Rome Masters final, and then at Roland Garros, where he successfully defended his French Open title.
It is difficult to imagine anything about Federer ever being average, although that was how he described his 6-4, 6-3 win over Hyung-Taik Lee of South Korea, which took the world number one through to today's quarter-final against Spain's David Ferrer, who beat the 19-year-old Serb, Novak Djokovic, 7-5, 6-4.
In overcast conditions Federer's timing was initially awry.
"I was shanking a lot of balls," said the Swiss, "but once I was able to keep the ball in play I was in total control, which is a good sign early on in the clay-court season."
Nadal pummelled Belgium's Kristof Vliegen into submission 6-1, 6-1, winning 24 of the last 26 points with the sustained and heavy top-spin hitting that caused Federer so many problems last year.
This extended the 20-year-old Spaniard's unbeaten run on the surface to 64 matches.
Also through to the last eight is his fellow Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero, the 2003 French champion.
Guardian Service
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)