Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer reached the Rome Masters quarter-finals on Thursday, but fourth seed Andy Murray suffered another setback in his French Open plans when he crashed out to Richard Gasquet.
In the women’s draw, Venus Williams upset fifth seed Samantha Stosur 6-4 6-3 in the third round and will now play defending champion Maria Sharapova who defeated Ana Ivanovic 7-6 (7-4) 6-3.
Murray, who lost 6-7 (1-7) 6-3 6-2 to Gasquet, revealed that he has been carrying a back problem since December but declined to go into details on the symptoms or its treatment.
However, he did admit to facing a race against time with the French Open starting in Paris a week on Sunday.
“I’ve felt it for some months, but I haven’t had a chance to take a pause. I’ve tried not to make it any worse, but the muscles get tired from compensating,” said Murray, who skipped last week’s Madrid Masters because of the problem.
Top seed Djokovic, the defending champion, staged a 4-6 6-2 6-3 comeback win over Argentine Juan Monaco while second seeded Nadal was ruthless with fellow Spaniard Marcel Granollers, winning 6-1 6-1.
Djokovic will tackle Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who saw off Juan Martin Del Potro 6-4 6-1, for a place in the last four.
“Conditions were very difficult for us. I finally settled into the match,” said Nadal, who will next face Tomas Berdych after last week’s Madrid finalist beat Spain’s Nicolas Almagro 7-6 (7-3), 6-3.
Federer, the winner of the Madrid Masters, defeated fellow veteran and former world No.1 Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-2 5-7 6-1 with a dozen aces and four breaks of serve.
The Spaniard took the clash to a third set with a late break before the third-seeded Swiss set-up a last-eight match with Italy’s Andreas Seppi who saved six match points in a 6-7 (1-7) 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (8-6) win over Stanislas Wawrinka.
Federer improved to 47-3 since last year’s US Open semi-finals, winning seven of his past 10 tournaments and returning to number two in the world.
Spanish sixth seed David Ferrer knocked out French 11th seed Gilles Simon 6-0 7-6 (7-5) and will tackle Gasquet.
In other women’s action, world No.1 Victoria Azarenka withdrew before her match against Dominika Cibulkova with a right shoulder injury while Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, the fourth seed, stopped Sorana Cirstea 6-2 5-7 6-2.
Madrid winner Serena Williams, the ninth seed, advanced over Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-3 6-1.