Rafael Nadal was rarely troubled as he saw off scattergun Ivan Ljubicic in straight sets to enter the semi-final of the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters.
The first three games all went against serve but Nadal restored order in the fourth and took it with a fantastic forehand passing shot after chasing down a lob to the backhand corner of his baseline.
He continued to decimate the Ljubicic serve with a break to love and repeated the dose to take the set 6-1. By that point Ljubicic had won just 12% of first serve points, two of 17 - including an ace.
Nadal swiftly went 2-0 up in the second set and the third game saw a dismal exchange at the net. Nadal chased down Ljubicic's drop shot and his scrambled return was met by a feeble Ljubicic lob. Nadal's overhead towards his opponent's feet was weak, but Ljubicic patted tamely into the net.
He went on to waste two break points before a forehand sailed over the shoulder of the baseline-rooted Nadal, handing advantage to the Spaniard who made no mistake.
Ljubicic's catalogue of errors continued when he left a return which landed comfortably in but he dug in to hold again.
The Croatian won five straight points and brought up two break points with Nadal serving for the match but wasted the first with a ridiculous drop-shot attempt as the six-time defending champion survived to close out a 6-1 6-3 win in 80 minutes.
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