Melbourne, January 26:

Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams stayed on track at the Australian Open today but Andy Murray’s campaign came shuddering to a halt and a raft of withdrawals blighted the race to the quarter-finals.

Top seed Nadal maintained his perfect record by sweeping past Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez and into a last-eight clash with France’s Gilles Simon as the Spaniard seeks his maiden hard-court Grand Slam.

Nadal, who is yet to drop a set, dominated 2007 finalist Gonzalez 6-3, 6-2, 6-4, with the Wimbledon and French Open champion yet to be challenged here after easy wins in all his matches. Simon went through on a retirement as fellow Frenchman Gael Monfils pulled out with a wrist injury when losing 6-4, 2-6, 6-1.

But pre-tournament favourite Murray went down in a gripping five-setter to Spanish star Fernando Verdasco, who beat

the Briton 2-6, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4. Rounding out the men’s quarter-finals was French fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who proved too hot to handle for American James Blake in a 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) rout. He will meet Verdasco for a place in the semi-finals.

Williams was fortunate in a tournament throwing up plenty of surprises when a distraught Victoria Azarenka retired with an apparent virus while leading 6-3, 2-4. The 19-year-old had a medical time-out at 2-3 in the second set but was staggering around the court before she eventually conceded in floods of tears and was helped off by two trainers. Williams now plays eighth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, with the Russian also benefiting from a retirement when China’s Zheng Jie pulled out with a wrist injury while losing 4-1.

Fellow Russian Elena Dementieva set up a quarter-final against unseeded Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro. Dementieva is on a 14-match winning streak this year blasting past Slovak 18th seed Dominika Cibulkova 6-2, 6-2. Her next opponent, Suarez Navarro, reached her first Australian Open quarter-finals with a 6-3, 6-2 win over 21st seed Anabel Medina Garrigues.