Halle, Germany – Fresh off his seventh French Open title, Rafael Nadal was an easy second-round winner, while five-time Halle champion Roger Federer also secured a spot in the quarterfinals at the $835,000 Gerry Weber Open, a grass-court Wimbledon tune-up.
Coming off the red clay in Paris, the former world No. 1 Nadal made a seemless transition to the grass in Halle with a 75-minute 7-5, 6-1 handling of Slovak Lukas Lacko, while a second-seeded Federer fired 11 aces in straight-setting Germany's own Florian Mayer 6-4, 7-5 in 74 minutes at Gerry Weber Stadium. Nadal is playing his first singles tennis in Halle since 2005.
The 30-year-old six-time Wimbledon champion Federer, who's had a street named after him in Halle, titled here from 2003-06 and in 2008 and was the runner-up in 2010.
The two-time Wimbledon winner Nadal's quarterfinal opponent on Friday will be eighth-seeded German crowd favorite and reigning titlist Philipp Kohlschreiber, while the former top-ranked great Federer will take on fifth- seeded rising Canadian slugger Milos Raonic.
Kohlschreiber came from behind to best Poland's Lukasz Kubot 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, 6-3. Kohlschreiber beat Philipp Petzschner in last year's all-German finale here and was the Halle runner-up to Federer in 2008.
Another Day-4 German victory came from wild card Tommy Haas, as the oft- injured former world No. 2 whipped sixth-seeded Spaniard Marcel Granollers 6-3, 6-4.
Up next for the 2009 Gerry Weber champion Haas will be third-seeded 2007 titlist and 2006 Halle runner-up Tomas Berdych.
One other quarterfinal will pit Czech Radek Stepanek against Russian Mikhail Youzhny.
The 2012 Gerry Weber champ will collect $150,000.
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