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Wawrinka gets free pass

Monte Carlo - Swiss third seed Stanislas Wawrinka reached the quarter-finals of the Monte Carlo Masters without hitting a ball on Thursday after his third-round opponent Nicolas Almagro withdrew for an unspecified reason.

The Australian Open champion advances to meet eighth seed Milos Raonic after the Canadian beat 11th-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo 6-4, 6-3.

Raonic's victory was a routine one with the hard-hitting Canadian breaking his opponent's serve four times as he worked through his own service games without facing a break point.

Local favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, seeded ninth, shook off a mediocre start to celebrate his 29th birthday with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-0 victory over Italy's Fabio Fognini.

After competing well for a majority of the match, the 10th-seeded Fognini lost focus and let the match slip from his grasp, winning just four points in the final set.

Later on Thursday, Spanish world No 1 Rafael Nadal faces another Italian, Andreas Seppi, in a third round encounter.

Results on the fifth day of the ATP Monte Carlo Masters on Thursday (x denotes seeding):

Third round

Milos Raonic (CAN x8) bt Tommy Robredo (ESP x11) 6-4, 6-3
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA x9) bt Fabio Fognini (ITA x10) 5-7, 6-3, 6-0

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