IF THIS was a portent for the Euro 2008 final, Germany should probably think twice about turning up in Vienna tonight. As late afternoon gave way to early evening, Centre Court witnessed the Spanish No 2 seed, Rafael Nadal, beating the German, Nicolas Kiefer, 7-6, 6-2, 6-3, and displaying the kind of ruthlessness usually attributed to Kiefer's countrymen on the football field.

Not that Nadal - who plans to watch the match with Feliciano Lopez and other members of tennis' Spanish armada - was admitting he felt this was anything akin to a walkover. "Easy? Never. But I think we have good chances for a win. We have an unbelievable team, I think all the Spanish people are very happy with the team. I will be watching it at home. Feliciano and the other Spanish players are going to watch so the best of luck for us."

Nadal has football connection as his uncle, Miguel Angel Nadal, featured for Spain at Euro 96 as well as three World Cup finals, while lurking in Kiefer's background was a guest appearance for his favour-ite side, Hannover, for whom he scored in a 14-0 friendly win.

After a keenly-fought first set which went with serve until the Spaniard upped his game in the tie-break, the scoring soon became equally one-sided here.

Indeed one of the biggest cheers of the evening came when Kiefer raised his arm to salute the fact he had been permitted to hold serve to win his first game of the third set. He was as amazed as everyone else when he then instantly broke the Spaniard, staging an improbable late rally which at least allowed the German to win some popularity contests amongst the Centre Court crowd.

Nadal, however, is more concerned with the big stuff. He has now reached the last 16 for his 10th Grand Slam in a row, and remains unbeaten on grass this year, as he attempts to become the first man since Lleyton Hewitt in 2002 to win back-to-back grass-court titles at Queen's and Wimbledon. He won at Roland Garros without dropping a set, and has only shipped one in his three rounds here, to improving teenage Latvian Ernests Gulbis in the second round.

"Kiefer is a difficult opponent, especially here on a fast surface like grass," Nadal said. "He has a very good serve, a good volley, and is a very aggressive player. I played a very good tie-break in the first set. For now I am just happy to be in the fourth round, I am doing well."

He deserved to be content about dismissing a potentially dangerous opponent with a minimum of fuss. It had, after all, taken the not inconsiderable challenge of Roger Federer at the semi-final stage to halt the progress of Kiefer in his warm-up event at Halle. An excellent junior player, reaching the final at Wimbledon as well as winning the US and Australian Opens as a youngster, Kiefer also had a Grand Slam semi-final appearance on his record, at the 2006 Australian Open. Such achievements counted for little yesterday.

The win even completed a hat-trick of sorts. This was the third time the pair had met in the calendar year of 2008, and the Spaniard didn't drop a set in Miami, nor in a Davis Cup World Group quarter- final.

Next up for Nadal is Mikhail Youzhny who beat Radek Stepanek, 7-5, 6-7, 6-4, 6-7, 6-3, as the gloom descended.

Elsewhere in the men's singles, there was a victory for Janko Tipsarevic, the Serbian who conquered Andy Roddick in the last round and who has a thing for quoting Dostoyevsky in his tattoos. Tipsarevic had a straight sets victory over Dmitri Tursunov - the man who ended Chris Eaton's charge - 7-6, 7-6, 6-3, and was pleasantly surprised. "I am proud of myself because I managed to do something which I usually don't, which is to beat a big name and then continue playing with the same intensity and have a more or less comfortable win in the next round."

Richard Gasquet got the better of an all-French encounter with Gilles Simon, and he was joined in the last 16 by a countryman in the form of Arnaud Clement, who beat Austrian Jurgen Melzer 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

Marin Cilic, the Croatian teenager who is the youngest player left in the men's draw, beat Paul Henri-Mathieu, 6-7, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6.

If events at SW19 are considered in the round yesterday, perhaps Germany can claim an honourable draw.

Nadal's countryman Guillermo Garcia Lopez had no answer to Rainer Schuettler earlier out on Court No 3, and his convincing 6-2, 6-3, 6-4, victory prevented Spain from taking a record number of players into the second week of the men's draw. Perhaps it will be penalties tonight after all.