Players Under the Microscope / Editor / 17 May 2007 /

Betfair punters who have backed Rafael Nadal to win the Masters Series event in Hamburg will have been pleased with his comfortable victory over Igor Andreev on Thursday.

The 20-year-old Spaniard extended his record-breaking winning streak to 79 matches on clay and, in the process, exacted some revenge as the Russian was the last man to beat him on the surface - back in April 2005 in Valencia.

Nadal was rarely troubled, winning in straight sets 6-4 6-1, and will now face either fifth seed Fernando Gonzalez of Chile or Austria's Jurgen Melzer.

The 'King of Clay' remains the strong 1.51 favourite to lift his first Hamburg title and his case can only have been helped by the exits of seeded rivals Ivan Ljubicic and James Blake.

Seventh seed Ljubicic lost in straight sets, 6-3 6-3, to Spain's David Ferrer, while eighth seed James Blake failed to make use of a blistering start and fell 1-6 6-3 6-3 to another Spaniard, Carlos Moya.

Nadal remains a strong 1.59 favourite to continue his dominance at Roland Garros next month, although Betfair customers still appear to favour world number one Roger Federer in a developing 'ATP Champions Race' market, despite the Swiss ace's recent dip in form.

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