Rafael Nadal will be making his fifth straight French Open quarterfinals after cruising to a straight-set win over Dusan Lajovic of Serbia, 6-1, 6-2, 6-1, moving one step closer to another title in the clay court event.

Nadal dominated right from the opening set. The eight-time French Open champion then won 17 straight games to start the second set with 4-0 lead, and he never looked back from then on, cruising to an easy victory.

"I played with no mistakes and having the control with the backhand, with the forehand from the baseline," Nadal said after the game via ESPN. "Sure, you never know what's better, but in theory, the theory says that it's better win like this than win longer matches."

With the win, Nadal improved his French Open record to 63-1 with his only loss coming during the fourth round of the 2009 competition, wherein he failed to win a fifth-straight title at Roland Garros.

Nadal, who is aiming to become the first player to win five-straight French Open titles, did not show signs of slowing down, unlike in the third round wherein he was bothered by an ailing back.

"I don't want to talk too much about this thing today," Nadal said of his back injury. "I have important match to come. Today I won a match in good shape. We'll see what's going on in the future."

Nadal's road to his fifth straight and ninth overall title will not be easy in the coming rounds, though, as he is set to face the best players in the tournament, including his quarterfinal foe David Ferrer.

Ferrer, who was the runner-up in last year's French Open, also advanced to the quarterfinals with a win over No. 19 seed Kevin Anderson of South Africa, 6-3, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-1.

Ferrer will head into the match as an underdog but is expected to play with a lot of confidence, considering the fact that he defeated Nadal in the Monte Carlo quarterfinals, which was only Nadal's third loss on clay this season.

When asked about his upcoming rematch with Ferrer, Nadal is unsure whether or not the result of their previous match will have an effect on their quarterfinal match at the Roland Garros.

"Always when you have a loss in the last confrontation, that can (have an) effect. Or not. I don't know," Nadal said.