It was a cake walk for Rafael Nadal to reach the quarter-finals of the Madrid Open yesterday as he beat Italy's Simone Bolelli 6-2, 6-2. Women's top seed Serena Williams and defending champion Maria Sharapova also stayed on course for a potential meeting in the final as they progressed to the last four with wins over Carla Suarez Navarro and Caroline Wozniacki respectively. Nadal has yet to win a European clay court tournament this season after defeats to Novak Djokovic at the Monte Carlo Masters and Fabio Fognini at the Barcelona Open last month. However, he remains the heavy favourite in the Spanish capital in the absence of world number one Djokovic.