Spain's Rafael Nadal moved closer to a French Open hat-trick by overcoming former world number one Lleyton Hewitt with a 6-3 6-1 7-6 win to reach the quarter-finals.
World number two Nadal, who turned 21 today, fought back from 4-2 down in the third-set tiebreak to take it 7-5 and set up a clash with compatriot Carlos Moya, the 1998 champion, for a place in the last four.
Second seed Nadal, aiming to become the first man to win the title three times in a row since Bjorn Borg in 1980, was in a class of his own for most of his match against the former Wimbledon and US Open champion, who has dropped to 16th in the ATP rankings and was seeded 14th.
Australia's Hewitt, 26, who fell to Nadal in four sets in the same round last year, still boasts a winning record against the claycourt king.
He now leads 4-3 although all three meetings on clay have resulted in wins for Nadal.
Serbian Novak Djokovic was only seven when Swede Jonas Bjorkman made his debut at Roland Garros but whatever he lacks in experience he made up for with youthful exuberance as he bounded into the quarter-finals.
Powerful, razor-sharp and fleet-footed, the 20-year-old sixth seed made mincemeat of Spain's Fernando Verdasco, winning 6-3 6-3 7-6 on a humid day.
Bjorkman, at 35 the oldest man to reach the fourth round since 1972, started well enough against former champion Carlos Moya before the exertions of the past week caught up with him.
Moya, no youngster himself at 30, now carries the flag for the older generation after a 7-6 6-2 7-5 victory.
Djokovic, the youngest player in the last 16, proved again that he has the game to loosen the Nadal-Federer stranglehold as he joined compatriots Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic in the quarter-finals.
Kitted out in bright yellow shirt and black shorts, Djokovic buzzed across the red clay, stinging Verdasco with winners from every conceivable angle.
A single service break was all it needed in the first set and he went 4-0 up in the second to establish complete control against the highest-ranked player he has faced here so far.
Verdasco, who had a 2-0 career record over Djokovic, made a match of it in the third set but even luck was against him.
A fierce rally at 1-3 in the tiebreak ended when a fizzing Djokovic backhand dropped dead off the netcord.
The Serbian looked to the heavens, arms aloft, but he needed no further assistance from above as he closed out the match.
Bjorkman defied conventional wisdom last year by getting to the semi-finals of Wimbledon and said on Saturday that reaching the fourth round of Roland Garros in the twilight of his admirable career was on a par.
When he moved into an early 3-0 lead and threatened a double break it even looked possible that the dream run might continue, but although the mind was willing his body began to fail him.
Twenty-third seed Moya, the 1998 champion and still a force on clay, recovered from a sluggish start to take the first set on a tiebreak and then cruised through the second.
Bjorkman, who came back from two-set deficits in the first two rounds, needed treatment on his shoulder at the end of the second set and although he gamely hung on in the third, there was no way back on this occasion.
Igor Andreev tamed a leaping Marcos Baghdatis with a 2-6 6-1 6-3 6-4 win to reach the quarter-finals of a grand slam for the first time.
The unseeded Russian will be heading into uncharted territory after adding the 16th-seeded Cypriot to his list of high-profile victims in Paris.
The conqueror of Andy Roddick in the first round, Andreev took his time to find his range on Suzanne Lenglen court but it was not long before Baghdatis was left attempting futile jumps in the air as he tried to chase down the Russian's soaring winners.
A final mishit shot into the stands ended Baghdatis's challenge and put Andreev into the last eight against sixth seed Djokovic.
RESULTS:
2-Rafael Nadal (Spain) beat 14-Lleyton Hewitt (Australia) 6-3 6-1 7-6(5)
Igor Andreev (Russia) beat 16-Marcos Baghdatis (Cyprus) 2-6 6-1 6-3 6-4
6-Novak Djokovic (Serbia) beat Fernando Verdasco (Spain) 6-3 6-3 7-6(1)
23-Carlos Moya (Spain) beat Jonas Bjorkman (Sweden) 7-6(5) 6-2 7-5
