Rafael Nadal does not seem to stop on his way to victory. Yesterday, he reached the 57th milestone. And, just like the other encounters on the Roland Garros clay, he had to work hard to make it happen. After an extraordinary clash against Paul-Henri Mathieu - a game that, despite the fact that it only took 4 sets to end, stopped the clock after more than 4 hours and a half - the Spaniard had to meet one of the tournament veterans, Australian Lleyton Hewitt. And, once again, it seemed that the crowd will have to wait another 4 hour to see the end of it.

It wasn't quite like that. Still, as show is concerned, the crowd did not leave the arena disappointed. After 3 consecutive breaks, Nadal was leading 3-1. He easily managed to take the first one, 6-2. The second set seemed to go as planned for the young Spaniard. Still, when leading 4-3 (and a break in hand), Hewitt recovered and equaled the score. The well-known "C'mon" was again heard on the Phillippe Chatrier arena in the 11th game, when the aussie managed to break Nadal's serve. And that's how it ended, 7-5 for Hewitt.

The third set represented Nadal's revenge for the previous one, since he broke Hewitt's service in the 7th game. He took the lead and wrapped up the set, 6-4. The last of the 4 sets in the game ended like nothing was supposed to change, again the 7th game being decisive for Nadal's win, 6-2. The Spaniard succeeded to pass one of the great rivals in the competition, and continue his quest for a second straight title in Paris. The quarterfinals will see him take over this year's sensation, Serbian Novak Djokovic. He reached his first such stage in a Grand Slam tournament - at only 19 years of age - after beating a local favorite, Gael Monfils.

"Today I played the best match, especially (since) Hewitt is someone... I mean, you let him grab a finger and he takes the arm", said Rafa after the game.

On the other hand, the aussie - who did his best to compete in this tournament although he was not fully recovered from his foot injury - wanted to stress the importance of him reaching this stage of the competition: "When I look back on it, there's a lot of positives I can take out of the last week-and-a-bit here, especially not knowing a week-and-a-half ago whether I was actually going to be able to play anyway. I went out there, gave everything I had. I'm a lot more confident going into Queen's than I was probably coming into the French Open. That gives me a lot of confidence".