MONACO — Eight-time champion Rafael Nadal saved 15 of 17 break points, and Andy Murray rallied from a set and 3-0 down Thursday as both advanced to the quarterfinals at the Monte Carlo Masters.
The fifth-seeded Nadal scampered around the clay to retrieve booming forehands before beating Dominic Thiem 7-5, 6-3. Murray came back to defeat an erratic Benoit Paire 2-6, 7-5, 7-5.
Roger Federer had little trouble by comparison, beating 14th-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut 6-2, 6-4.
Nadal, arguably the greatest clay-court player in history, struggled in the first set against Thiem, facing 16 of the 17 break points.
With the score 4-4 — and with each player having dropped serve once — Thiem missed six chances to break Nadal in the ninth game. On the last one, Thiem let a lob go thinking it was going out, and watched it land in.
The Spaniard clenched his fist after holding that tough game, and then broke Thiem when the Austrian double-faulted on set point.
"Some of the break points he played very well so I didn't have a chance, but there were also some where I really had some easy shots," said Thiem,
who converted only one of 16 chances on top-ranked Novak Djokovic's serve in the third round of the Miami Masters two weeks ago. "Of course, it's very frustrating. I will try to convert more breakpoints in the next matches."
After Thiem broke Nadal to love in the third game of the second set for a 2-1 lead, Nadal quickly regained momentum and broke Thiem two more times to set up a quarterfinal match against fourth-seeded Stan Wawrinka, the 2014 champion.
"If you look at the past year, we can see his level has slightly decreased," Wawrinka said of Nadal. "But a champion like him is still able to win big titles."
Murray had even closer match, but he also managed to reach the quarterfinals, winning 19 of 29 points at the net.
"To win when you're not playing particularly well, it's a great effort," Murray said. "It would have been easy to lose today and get down on myself. But I kept fighting right the way through."
Paire had 47 winners among a number of eye-catching shots, but the 16th-seeded Frenchman also made 52 unforced errors. He had eight aces and seven double-faults.
Paire also lost his composure at key moments, double-faulting when serving for the match and again on match point.
"He played a bad game at 3-0 in the second to give me one of the breaks back," Murray said. "I felt like I was in with a chance then."
The second-seeded Murray next plays No. 10 Milos Raonic of Canada, who had 12 aces in a 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (5) win over 99th-ranked Damir Dzumur.
"Raonic has come through a couple of tough ones as well," Murray said. "Maybe this week he hasn't played his best either."
Wawrinka advanced by beating No. 15 Gilles Simon 6-1, 6-2, breaking the Frenchman's serve five times.
The day after beating Djokovic in the second round for the biggest win of his career, 55th-ranked Jiri Vesely lost to No. 13 Gael Monfils 6-1, 6-2.
Sharapova still faces meldonium hearing
Maria Sharapova still faces a hearing after testing positive for meldonium, despite the World Anti-Doping Agency issuing fresh rules for athletes who tested positive for the banned substance before March 1, the International Tennis Federation has said.
Five-time Grand Slam tennis champion Sharapova tested positive for the drug at this year's Australian Open after it was added to WADA's list of banned substances in January.
WADA said in a notice Wednesday that athletes who tested positive for meldonium before March 1 could have bans overturned as the agency was unable to establish how quickly the drug cleared the human body.
"In light of the recent notice from WADA regarding the process for dealing with cases involving meldonium, the ITF can confirm that the Tennis Anti-Doping Program case involving Maria Sharapova will proceed to a hearing in accordance with WADA's recommendations," the ITF said in a statement Wednesday.
"The ITF does not intend to make any further statement until completion of this process due to the confidentiality of the Tennis Anti-Doping Program."
