Spaniard Rafael Nadal give himself a birthday present as he defeated Lleyton Hewitt. With this victory Nadal reached the quarter-finals on Monday as his is one step closer to a dream final.

"It's perfect to be in quarter-finals and it's perfect play (from me), said the winner. "Ten times better today than the last days, no?"

Nadal will face fellow Mallorcan in the last eight and a mentor nearly a decade his senior in Carlos Moya.

"I'm very happy for him because he is playing very well," Nadal said. "He's coming back at the top position. He's in quarter-finals - but I hope he stops here."

"Rafa will be an opponent, a rival," Moya said. "On the court, you don't have any friends."

In the other fourth-round matches, Serbia’s Novak Djokovic eased past Spain’s Fernando Verdasco in straight sets. He will face unseeded Russian Igor Andreev, who came from a set down to beat Marcos Baghdatis, for a semi-final place.

"I'm really happy with how I played," said Djokovic. "I honestly didn't perform very well in the early rounds. But I've rediscovered my game, I played my best tennis today."

The two other men's quarterfinals are Tuesday, when 10-time major champion Federer faces No. 9 Tommy Robredo, and No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko meets No. 19 Guillermo Canas.