Nadal, the two-time defending French Open champion, is seeking his third straight Monte Carlo title. He has not lost on clay since Igor Andreev of Russia beat him in the quarterfinals of the Valencia Open in April 2005.

The second-seeded Spaniard next plays Kristof Vliegen of Belgium.

Andreev beat fourth-seeded Fernando Gonzalez of Chile 6-2, 2-6, 6-3. Nadal and Andreev could meet again in Sunday's final.

Robin Soderling needed five match points before upsetting third-seeded Nikolay Davydenko 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-3. The Swede failed to convert his first match point when leading 5-4 in the second set, and then had another in the tiebreaker.

In the third set, Davydenko saved two more match points. But Soderling won on his fifth chance when Davydenko's backhand was long.

Soderling will next play Max Mirnyi, who beat Sergio Roitman of Argentina 7-5, 6-4.

Sixth-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia beat 2004 French Open champion Gaston Gaudio of Argentina 6-1, 3-6, 6-1.

"I felt pretty comfortable on the court," said Djokovic, who won the Miami Masters earlier this month. "I felt like everything depended on me. The third set was more or less pretty easy after the second or third game."

Juan Carlos Ferrero, Tommy Robredo and Tomas Berdych all advanced without dropping a set.