It’s almost unheard of.  Nadal is almost always good to the quarterfinals of every event he plays.  Hot off the heels of his win in Tokyo, Nadal faced veteran Jurgen Melzer, a lefty that Nadal last beat at Roland Garros.  One could argue that Nadal’s toughest match came against Melzer who pushed him to a tiebreak.

Although Nadal won the US Open, the first time he’s ever reached the final of that major, his record on hard courts is not usually very good.  It’s not bad, mind you, but considering his dominance on clay and, yes, even grass (it’s hard to call it dominance since there are so few grass events), his performance on hard courts is not nearly so great.

One reason used to be Nadal’s playing style.  Nadal is so stingy with unforced errors that he often plays much safer shots than he needs to, and only resorts to big shots when he’s in trouble.  To preserve his health, especially his knees, Nadal has been willing to make more unforced errors in exchange for quicker points.

Despite this change, the strategy for Nadal’s opponents remains the same.  Attack Nadal before Nadal attacks you.

Although Melzer had never taken a set off Nadal, he was prepared with the Nadal strategy, hitting big lefty shots and getting just enough errors that Melzer took the first set handily, 6-1.  Nadal got his only break in the second set and secured it 6-3.  Melzer returned the favor in the third set and took it 6-3 as well.

Nadal, one should recall, also came precariously close to losing in Tokyo to Victor Troicki.  Troicki was serving for the match, had match points, but eventually coughed up errors, lost his serve, and lost the match in a close third set tiebreak.  And the week before, he lost to countryman, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

Roger Federer has less trouble with Andreas Seppi.  Robin Soderling played two close sets to beat Spaniard David Ferrer employing just enough power to keep Ferrer off balance.  Federer plays Soderling in the next round.

Speaking of Garcia-Lopez, he’s still in the tournament and will face Novak Djokovic next after beating Tomas Berdych in the previous round.

Andy Murray will face his first tough match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who beat Andy Murray way back in the 2008 Australian Open.  Melzer will face Argentine, Juan Monaco, in the remaining quarterfinal.