Rome: Third seeds of Leander Paes and Martin Damm have reached the doubles quarter finals of the Rome Masters on Thursday.

The Indo-Czech pair got a bye in the first round were to meet Americans James Blake and Mardy Fish in the pre-quarters. However, with Fish down with a fever, Paes and Damm were given a walkover.

In the quarter finals, Paes and Damm will face eighth seeds Andrei Pavel of Romania and Alexander Waske of Germany.

Mahesh Bhupathi and Radek Stepanekcrashed out in the first round. They lost to Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen and Swede Robin Soderling 4-6, 6-4, 9-11.

Nieminen and Soderling went on to lose to Pavel-Waske in the last 16.

On Friday, Rafael Nadal beat Novak Djokovic 6-2, 6-3 to advance to the semi-finals.

This was his 75th consecutive win on clay, matching John McEnroe’s streak for most victories on one surface.

McEnroe, who watched Nadal’s latest win from a courtside seat, had a 75-match winning streak on indoor-carpet between September 1983 and April 1985.

Nadal can break the record on Saturday against fourth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko, who rallied to beat Tommy Robredo 1-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Earlier, Filippo Volandri followed up his win over Roger Federer by beating 12th-seeded Tomas Berdych 6-2, 6-3, becoming the first Italian to reach the final four in Rome since Adriano Panatta in 1978.

Panatta was also the last Italian to win the tournament, in 1976.

Nadal hasn’t lost a set in 13 matches on clay this season. He is also attempting to become the first player to win this French Open warm-up three consecutive times.

Thomas Muster and Jaroslav Drobny — a Czech player in the 1950s — also won in Rome three times, but not in succession. (Agencies)